Still work to be done for Robbie
ROBBIE Stockdale insists there’s still work to be done for Rochdale before the season comes to an end.
A return of seven points from their previous three games has all but guaranteed Dale’s place in the Football League next season with the club ten points clear of the drop zone heading into the final six games of the campaign.
And ahead of the Good Friday trip to Stevenage, the Dale chief insisted there would be no taking the foot off the gas.
“There has to be a desire to finish the season really strongly because what’s the point in not having that appetite to try and go out and be your best at every opportunity?” asked Stockdale.
“It helps that we have a couple of players back from injury and you can see the difference they make to our team, but it’s something we have to do because we want to move up the table.
“We want to try to claw back as many teams as we possibly can.
“I said all along, even in the difficult run that we had, that the time to judge us was at the end of the season.
“There is still a job to be done this season, one hundred per cent, and that has been my message to the players. We’ve done nothing, we’ve kind of done what I expected us to do and pick up some good results. The next game is Stevenage, we want to do exactly the same, but it’s going to take a really good effort to do that because we haven’t been good enough on the road and that’s our next job, to try and get a result at Stevenage.
“When I look back, and I’m sure we’ll do a review later on, you can see the team is starting to gel a little bit and it was almost like a brand new team when you consider how many players we brought in in January, how many injuries those players have got.
“So we were always going to have a difficult moment and unfortunately that came in one big hit. I like to think we are through it, but there won’t be any letting up from me to the players – we have to finish the season as strongly as we possibly can and we still need to pick up points.”
Stockdale said the mood in the camp was upbeat ahead of the journey south to Stevenage.
“Preparations have been good, obviously on the back of some good results,” he said. “As you can imagine, confidence is fairly high within the playing squad and we want to carry it on and finish the season on an upward trajectory.
“The next challenge to that is Stevenage, a really tough game.
“We haven’t been good enough away from home recently and the challenge to the players is ‘can we replicate the performance that gives us a chance to get a result.”
The trip to Stevenage was one of three remaining away games for Dale.
“We’re not looking beyond the game on Friday, really,” said Stockdale. “They have a new manager, he’s very experienced and has been around the game a long, long time.
“They are in a position like ourselves where they need to pick up points and we expect a very difficult game. We’ve done well at home recently, now the challenge to the players is can we replicate that away?
“Of the players that we brought in, it was five or six – when you put five or six into an eleven and it’s not hard to do the maths, it’s a hell of a lot of players to get up to speed, all coming from different levels, all trying to get to know each and get to know me and me them. Maybe it was just a little bit of that, but I think you can see from the last three performances at home, to get seven points from nine when we really needed it was fantastic credit to the players.
“But that’s gone, it’s in the past – we have to look to the future now and the immediate future is Stevenage.”
In terms of availability, Stockdale was expecting to have Josh Andrews available after he trained again this week (he was ill last weekend) while Max Taylor is back in training but not expected to feature in Friday’s game.
On Easter Monday, Dale are at home against Hartlepool United, 3pm kick off.
Meanwhile, the club’s Youth Team were 2-0 winners over Morecambe last weekend.
Peter Thomas netted a brace in the victory.
The forward opened the scorning after just six minutes when he broke away from a Shrimps corner, hitting the visitors on the counter-attack before running the length of the pitch and slotting into the bottom right hand corner.
It had been all Dale applying the pressure during the open exchanges, although Morecambe did then come close with a free kick on 18 minutes.
Rochdale nearly doubled their advantage soon after, but Thomas saw his effort cleared off the line. He then struck over the bar a short time later.
On the half hour mark, there was some fantastic work by Ellis Craven, who pulled off a great double save to keep Morecambe out, before Cameron Kyle put in a timely block to ensure Rochdale’s lead remained intact.
After the break, Thomas saw an effort across the face of goal travel narrowly wide, while Darren Ehimamiegho, too, came close to extending Dale’s lead, only for the ‘keeper to deny him.
Rochdale still had to be alert, though, and Under16 player George Nevett put in a great goal line block on 65 minutes to deny the visitors.
There was a Dale double substitution ten minutes from time, as Paul Kyffin and Ehimamiegho made way for Joe Cunningham and Under-16 John Dunlop.
And the side finally got their deserved second goal of the game with sixty seconds remaining. Anisio Jesus cut the ball back for Thomas who smashed it home to complete his brace.
There was a third and final substitution in stoppage, with Under-16 Sam Smith replacing Bassitt Mandey. DALE XI: Craven, Caldwell, Watts, Nevett, Sutton, Kyle, Kyffin, Mandey, Ehimamiegho, Thomas, Jesus. Subs | Cunningham, Maclorg, Dunlop, Smith, Lawless.