Injury-hit Dale eye York double
ROCHDALE will look to bounce back from a disappointing midweek defeat in the FA Trophy when they entertain York City at the Crown Oil Arena today.
Jim Mcnulty’s side sit two points off the play-off positions heading into the fixture as they look to complete the double over the Minstermen, having won 3-1 across the Pennines back in August.
Dale will be forced to cope without the frontline services of injured duo Kairo Mitchell and Devante Rodney.
Mitchell has been ruled out until the new year with ankle ligament damage while Rodney missed Tuesday’s FA Trophy tie against Gateshead, in which Dale suffered a 5-1 defeat on home turf.
The striker made his first start for Dale since the opening day of the season in the 1-0 loss at Bromley, lasting 74 minutes before being replaced by Tyrese Sinclair. However, Mcnulty has confirmed he will be unavailable.
“Unfortunately, he has pulled his hamstring in training,” said Mcnulty.
“It’s a blow and a shame for Dev, having just got back. It’s a shame for him, and it’s a shame for the team because it leaves us incredibly light now with Ian Henderson as our only striker at the club fit.
“Kairo [Mitchell] is out, and now Dev will be out for quite a length of time. We’re still waiting for the news on what will need to be done with that. We’re hoping for the best.
“But we know that it’ll be a significant amount of time out. It just further surmises the depletion of our squad at the moment.”
Gateshead exposed the shallowness of Dale’s squad on Tuesday.
Connor Mcbride fired them into a first-half lead having earlier sent a penalty over the crossbar.
The Heed then scored twice in quick succession early in the second period through Billy Chadwick and Callum Whelan.
Tyrese Sinclair converted a spot kick to breathe life into Dale’s hopes of progression, but Marcus Dinanga’s stoppage time brace gave the scoreline a lopsided look.
“It showed how we certainly can’t compete in more than one competition from a squad perspective,” said Mcnulty.
“I feel like we have just about enough to compete in the league.
“Looking at the two sides, and I had a good chat with their manager before the game, we’re in very different situations. They’re three years deep into the project they’re in. They have a 25-man squad there of real depth and understanding. When guys leave the team, and others come in, it looks very much the same. You could certainly see that if we rest a couple of the main players like we need to and we try and move things around a little bit, I think against the best teams in our league we can get exposed. Unfortunately, that was shown.”
Goalkeeper Brad Kelly made his first professional start for Dale in last night’s game, with Academy players Luke Mann and Isaac Burgess both coming onto the pitch to make their first-team debuts. Academy midfielder Corey Edwards was also named on the bench.
“I thought that it was important to put those guys on the bench,” said Mcnulty.
“Without them, we would have had a bench of four, with one of them being a goalkeeper: leaving us with three outfield options, which is truthfully too short, certainly to compete in two trophies
“I never thought that we could go deep in anything other than the league. It was critical that we protected the players. We didn’t protect as many as I would have liked to, if I’m being honest. I still had to expose some.
“I would have been devastated if we’d have lost a couple more players in the FA Trophy because I know that it could decimate us in the league. “I wish the game had gone better for the young lads making their debuts, but they won’t get a tougher physical examination than they do against Gateshead outside of the Football League.
“The group has been handling the challenge really well. Did I feel we could go beyond the early stages of any competition outside the league this year? No, I didn’t. It’s just a bonus none of the players got injured, because we can’t really afford it.”
Despite the disappointment of midweek, Mcnulty is confident going into the York clash.
“I’m optimistic, it’s another game we can win,” he said. “I go into every league game believing we can win, we formulate a plan to win that game. We have to find solutions, move players round and still try to provide threat and protection at the same time.”