Chesterfield point full of positives for boss

JIM Mcnulty expressed his pride in the squad and the club’s supporters after Dale’s 2-2 draw at Chesterfield on Saturday.

The runaway league leaders had taken a 2-0 lead, despite Dale creating the better chances, before goals from D’mani Mellor and Devante Rodney earned a point away from home.

The head coach said it was an amazing comeback and felt Dale could have won it.

“I’m really proud of the team,” said Mcnulty.

“I’m proud of all the players that were out there, those sat behind me, those that weren’t with us, and all of the staff that were involved too. We only took a point but we feel like we could have won. We feel like it was a really good performance. We were feeling a bit disappointed at half-time that we weren’t ahead. We had good chances, we looked menacing, we looked secure, even though we came under a lot of pressure from Chesterfield, which is to be expected. They are the soon-to-be champions.

“The overriding feeling finishing the game today is just pure pride at everyone involved, including the fans that were here.

“The gameplan was making us competitive. We were making chances and looking fairly solid.

“We conceded two goals from nothing really – they were set-piece moments. To be honest, I’ve got real sympathy for the team because Chesterfield have scored so many goals this season. One big aspect of that is set pieces – they’ve produced so many set-piece goals in moments of sticky times. They did that again.

“I told the players after the game that at 2-0 down, I didn’t have a problem with them, because I knew they’d given everything.

“The fact that they found the belief, hope and character at 2-0 down, off the back of recent results that we’ve had, and off the back of the news around the club this week, it was an amazing comeback.”