No half time tub thumping from BBM

BRIAN Barry-Murphy insisted there was no miraculous half time team talk to inspire Saturday’s turnaround against Crewe.

Rather, it was a case of adjusting things to cope with Crewe’s devastating counter attack and managing the players’ emotions.

“I thought it was a brilliant game, but at the end, it’s obviously easy for me to say that because we came back and played so well,” he said.

“To be honest, I thought we played well for long periods of the game. Worryingly for us, we were 3-0 down having been in no real danger but Crewe are a team that can do that to you and they did it to teams in League Two last year and now in League One. I’m just very happy that the players got the result I feel their efforts deserved.

“[At half-time], it was about understanding how dangerous Crewe were on the counter-attack and how, when you’re in control and trying to push and mount attacks in the moment of transitions where they win the ball back, they can break at lightning speed. We didn’t manage those transition moments in the first half well enough.

“It was also about trying to manage the lads’ emotions and make them believe that we could get back into the game. The goal after half-time gave us that belief and probably put doubts in Crewe’s mind. It was a really satisfying result for us in terms of coming back and showing that we can play well at home and score goals at home. There was an inevitable buzz in the dressing room after the game.”

BBM said the second half performance was an indication of the togetherness in the Dale camp – a squad without such cohesion might well have crumbled in the face of such a daunting task heading out onto the pitch with three goals to overturn.

“The second half comeback is testament to the lads’s willingness to work for each other and to show how together we all are,” said the gaffer.

“It’s hard at half-time when you’re losing by that scoreline and you’ve had that before, especially against a team like this having felt as if we had played okay.”