Dale on road for away day double
ROCHDALE travel to Shrewsbury Town this weekend buoyed by a first away win of the season at Burton on Tuesday.
Matty Lund scored the only goal of the game against one of his former clubs and said victory against the Brewers can be a springboard for Dale.
The midfielder said a positive result at the New Meadow would take Dale into the home doubleheader against Sunderland and Bristol Rovers next week in confident frame of mind and looking up – rather than down – the League One table.
“Shrewsbury will be another tough game,” said Lund. “We just have to go into it as we did at Burton and hopefully get some points – a point or three would be good on the road, that’s the key, to be able to pick up something away from home and then get our home form good. It has been good, apart from the Hull game when we conceded some goals that we shouldn’t have done. We just need to focus on Shrewsbury then we have a couple of home games.
“After the lockdown the lads are just happy to be playing football and we’re glad the games are coming.
“Everyone just wants to play, especially after a win because you are on a high, you want to keep that going and get on a run – hopefully we can do that and get ourselves up the table.”
A three-point return at the Pirelli Stadium represented Dale’s first points of the campaign on the road and lifted them clear of the relegation places – one point and one place above today’s opponents, Shrewsbury.
Dale chief Brian BarryMurphy has been looking beyond results – be they positive or negative – and has concentrated on the squad’s improvement.
“It’s testament to the work the lads are putting in and not being distracted by results which can be difficult but continuously building on performances,” he said after the 1-0 win against the Brewers.
“We’re seeing incredible progress in terms of our physical output from the team and it’s now just a case of getting everybody back as soon as we can to make the squad as strong as we can. Then, numbers of the squad won’t be a problem because hopefully we’ll have everybody fit if I can manage to do my job properly!
“It has been a great couple of weeks for us in terms of
“We’re really stretched in terms of our squad and trying to get through without established members of that (Eoghan O’Connell was absent in our performances. midweek through illness and Paul McShane missed out due to injury), so to go to Burton and put on a performance like that is something that makes us all hugely proud.”