Heading in right direction: Newby
Two-goal Alex and gaffer accept Orient display was below par – but insist Dale will get it right
ALEX NEWBY is convinced Rochdale are heading in the right direction – despite the disappointment of Saturday’s performance against Leyton Orient.
Newby’s brace of goals in the first and 90th minute of the game earned Dale a point against a side challenging for the playoff spots.
It was a decent result – but the performance was well below par.
However, given the sweeping changes made on and off the field at the club during the summer, the transition was perhaps inevitable and Newby believes Robbie Stockdale’s side has shown enough quality already to prove they are making positive strides.
“I feel everyone has adapted well (to the changes over the summer) and while Saturday wasn’t our best performance, I think over the course of the season so far we have put in some great performances and I feel we are going in the right direction,” he said.
“Everyone is on the same page. We will get games like Saturday’s where we’re not quite at it for whatever reason, but the performances will come and they have come so far this season.
“We have some really good players in this team and it’s really good to play with them. I enjoy playing with these players and enjoy how we work in training.
“Five unbeaten is really good and there’s a couple of wins in there as well. “We’re looking to build good performances and results will follow after that.”
Newby doesn’t buy into the theory that Dale have been more effective away from home so far and said there have been strong displays both home and away.
“We’ve had some great performances away from home – Barrow a few weeks ago,” he said. “But I also thought we were excellent in the Sutton game at home, so I don’t think it’s a case of playing better away from home. We’re on a good run at the minute, five unbeaten, and we just want to keep that going home and away.”
Manager Stockdale accepted the result was far better than the performance at the weekend.
“It’s maybe a fortunate point,” he said.
“After going in the lead so early you hope to build a bit of momentum. First half I thought we were okay, nothing special, and second half I thought we were poor. We’ve got miles better quality in the building with what we showed. Credit to the players, they kept at it, but it wasn’t pretty to watch, that’s for sure.
“[The opening goal was a] good goal. There was good link up play and then a good cross after Corey’s got into an attacking position which we know he can do.
“It gives you a good platform in the game and it was nip and tuck. Obviously Leyton Orient have a style of play and a way of playing but I felt we sort of got sucked into that a little bit and didn’t play our game, so that’s the disappointing thing.
“Straight after a game, emotions are quite high. I might look back at it and say it’s a really good point but I’m more disappointed in our performance and I’ve told the players that.”
Stockdale said the players didn’t do themselves justice in the weekend’s clash.
“We’ve got miles better quality than what we showed on the ball,” he said. “Individual mistakes, and that can happen – on the plus side they kept going and they kept persevering.
“Although I was disappointed with the performance, I don’t think Joel [Coleman] had loads of saves to make. Orient always asking questions with long throws and setpieces.
“I’ll review the game like I always do but I think we’re all disappointed in the way that we played but we still came out of it with a draw so, okay, we’ll move on.”
There was no faulting the effort from Dale – it was the quality that was lacking from passages of play.
“I’ve said from day one that I’ll never pat them on the back for trying hard, that’s a given – if they play in my team, that’s what they have to do,” said the manager. “So they did, it wasn’t great quality, we accept that, we’re better than what we showed but we stuck at a challenge where we weren’t playing great football and got a result at the end of it. “But we can be better.” The point means Dale are now unbeaten in five in the league but Stockdale wants to see improved performances at home.
“Away from home we seem to have a bit of freedom in our play and we’ve been excellent away from home. We’ve shown patches of it at home and I’m really looking for that consistency.
“It’s a great little run in the league in terms of being unbeaten, but if we want to get to where we want to go, then we need to play better and win these games at home.
“It’s a long process, it’s a new team still - I know we’ve had them in the building a little while now, but they’re still getting to grips with me and they’re getting to grips with each other.
“It’s pleasing to extend the unbeaten run but I can’t honestly say that I was really pleased with how we played.”
“It’s about consistency in the level of performance of the players – I ask them all every day to improve their consistency because it’s in them. I see it and all the players show quality – it’s about doing it when it matters. We’ll working, we’ll keep trying hard – I’m sitting here like I’ve lost the game, I understand that even though we’ve drawn. I’m sure over a period of time I will take the positive out of that but we want to be better and we will be better.”