Improving Dale intent on scaling new heights
EOGHAN O’connell and his Rochdale team-mates were determined not to be caught resting on their laurels this Easter weekend as the squad made the trip south for Good Friday’s clash at Stevenage.
With a home game against Hartlepool United to follow three days later, it was an opportunity for Dale to maintain their current upturn in form and continue their climb up the League Two table.
“You can never rest in football because it will come back to bite you, so we have to just carry on now and try to grind out another performance and see where that takes us,” said skipper O’connell. “If we put in the same amount of effort and dedication to the way that we want to play then we’ll be okay.
“It was a tough game against Stevenage at our place, I thought we played quite well that night but we conceded a couple of sloppy goals and it ended up 2-2. We’ve obviously had an upturn in form but they have had a good result as well (a 2-0 win at Colchester) so they’ll be coming into the game with their tails up so we’ll have to be ready, we know what we’re going to get, it will be tough so we need to be on it.
“It’s Friday/monday, which is different for us but we’ll treat it like a Saturday/tuesday. We’ll play the game then get back and focus on the Monday game, recover the best we can and be ready to go again.”
Dale head into the clash against Stevenage - now managed by old hand Steve Evans – with a return of seven points from their last three games, during which they have managed to shut out all their opponents.
“The clean sheets give us a big platform in the game - if we get to half time at 0-0 we know we have players who can cause problems and give ourselves a chance in the game. We probably haven’t done that enough this season,” said O’connell.
“Everyone’s looking forward to the Easter games, especially coming off the back of the run we’re on at the moment, we just can’t wait for the games to come.
“There’s definitely an appetite to finish the season strongly. I think we’ve shown in the last three games our form is good and it’s about kicking on now and trying to take things to the next level, trying to finish as high as we can.
“The way the pitch is at home right now, it’s very difficult to play on, so if we can give ourselves that platform to try to nick a goal from half time, that’s a big thing.”
It’s been a real turnaround for Dale after a run of seven games without a win earlier in the year. The mood around the club was bleak after successive losses against Leyton Orient, Mansfield and Crawley last month when things hit a low point.
“Games come so quickly in this league that you do get a chance to turn things around,” said O’connell. “We weren’t on a great run but our recent performances in games suggest we’ve turned that around and we’re getting rewards for the work we’re putting in.
“I think it’s been down to the consistency in our work, we have been training a lot. Crawley was not a great performance but I thought we did okay against Mansfield at home. They are a good team and scored late on. Crawley and Leyton Orient were poor performances but overall I think in terms of effort and application, we’ve been there, so it’s just taking what we’ve been doing in training onto the pitch, so long may that continue.”