Jim: Ridiculous rules ‘destroying football’
JIM Mcnulty blasted those writing football’s rulebook for ‘destroying’ the game – but insisted his threadbare squad will react in the right manner to Tyrese Sinclair’s New Year’s Day suspension.
Dale wrapped up a 2-0 Boxing Day victory in time added on when Kwaku Oduroh netted his first ever goal in professional football, doubling the lead handed to Dale by Ian Henderson’s opener just before the break.
Having been under cosh for long spells in the second half, the relief around the Crown Oil Arena was tangible on and off the field. Sinclair, substituted minutes earlier, raced down the touchline to join in the celebrations – and was booked by referee John Mulligan having re-entered the field of play.
It was Sinclair’s second booking of the day and means he will miss the reverse fixture on New Year’s Day. Given the injuries among what is already a small squad Mcnulty is already having to contend with, losing Sinclair for the clash is a huge blow.
“For Kwaks [Kwaku Oduroh] to get that goal at the end was really nice for the squad and the fans,” said Mcnulty.
“It was a nice moment for the ground. It was good that those people got to see a team that really fought for the town and it culminated in an exciting goal and a great celebration, despite what happened in the celebrations after the goal, which I think are ridiculous and destroying football, truthfully destroying football.
“If you can’t cherish match-winning moments that come so late in the game, if you seriously can’t walk in front of a corner flag to go and celebrate with your teammate, who you work with day in, day out, who you see try and progress, you see try and improve us, who was in the gym every single day after training, doing all the extras whether he’s playing well, not playing well, doing everything, and your team-mate wants to celebrate one side of a line or another... it’s killing football.
“What is the point? What is it for a moment like that, last minute? I get the rule has probably been designed for other circumstances within a football match, but to get sent off for that?
“It won’t sour this group’s spirit, it definitely won’t and we’ll do what we need to do to rejuvenate in the toughest moments because we’ve now only got 12 fit players and we’ll go again.
“But I just think rules like that are killing football.”
Mcnulty said Dale’s character was commendable throughout the clash, in which Chris Beech’s side asked serious questions of the home side’s defence.
Henderson and Oduroh sealed a 2-0 win in front of over 4,500 fans, with many newcomers taking up the club’s offer of £1 tickets.
“It was a good win, in difficult circumstances,” said the head coach.
“Assessing my players, live in front of me, truthfully, I thought they were out on their feet a little bit.
“Again, I felt like I couldn’t really help them. Fylde made changes – most line-ups can freshen
up. Our options for changes are so minimal it’s almost not even possible.
“I had concerns pregame about how we were going to find the energy to bring a Boxing Day show
piece to the ground. I don’t blame the players one bit for being down on energy.
“They weren’t down on fight, but they were definitely down on energy. You could see there was a loss of energy in the performance compared to what we’ve had recently.
“But how they found the fight to stay in the game and show enough, in the end, to get a victory against a really dangerous opponent, is really commendable.
“To take five points from the last three games and keep two clean sheets, in what was definitely our worst performance of those three games – in the other two we were excellent – was commendable.”