Injuries and suspensions are plaguing out-of-form Rochdale
BRIAN Barry-Murphy will put out a patched-up team as Rochdale look to kick off 2020 by turning around their League One fortunes.
Dale head to in-form Accrington Stanley tomorrow beset by injuries and suspension.
BBM’s side has lost eight of their previous nine league fixtures stretching back to the end of October, a poor run broken only by victory at Rotherham early last month.
During that time, the management team have had to cope with one of the worst injury lists to hit the club in decades.
Dale were beaten 1-0 at Gillingham on Sunday, where they were missing
Ian Henderson, Jim McNulty, Ryan McLaughlin, Rhys Norrington-Davies and Matty Done.
Paul McShane started the game having returned from a spell on the sidelines but was substituted at the break as BBM is desperate to protect him from further injury.
And to compound Dale’s selection woes, MJ Williams was sent off for two bookable offences late on which will see him suspended for tomorrow’s game.
“It’s very difficult for our lads, especially for the likes of Callum
Camps and Eoghan O’Connell and Robert Sanchez, who are giving everything – and I really am asking them to give everything because there are so many young players involved.
“The players we have missing are not just players who have been involved in matchday squads, the Hendersons, Dones, McLaughlins, Norrington-Davies,’ McNultys, they are key parts of our squad.
“I always felt throughout the close season and the start of this season that you can almost never plan for it because if you do you are wasting your time as it is very unlikely to happen. I know it has happened and we are having to do it on the spot and patch up as we go along. “The team that finished the game at Gillingham bore a lot of similarities with that which finished the game at Wimbledon earlier in the season where we were asking people to do jobs in positions where they have not played before and as a consequence the results can be painful but we can still gain a lot from these moments and grow stronger as we get players back.”
Norrington-Davies was ruled out after a clash with Fleetwood goalkeeper Billy Crellin on Boxing Day – having suffered concussion he must remain sidelined for seven to 10 days at least.
Rochdale boss Brian Barry-Murphy