Dale out to clip Spitfires’ wings
JIM Mcnulty will be hoping his Rochdale side can ride the crest of a wave today when they take on Eastleigh at Silverlake Stadium.
Dale gave themselves a real shot in the arm on Tuesday when they came from a goal down to beat Woking 2-1 at the Crown Oil Arena.
The result ended a run of three games without a win and lifted the club back up to 11th in the National League table ahead of today’s clash with the 15th-placed Spitfires.
“They are a team full of firepower, the league’s top marksmen and they have been moving along nicely since the new manager (Kelvin Davis) went in there,” said Mcnulty.
“Their match was postponed on Tuesday so they’ve been without a game for 14 days so they will be fresh, raring to go and they were in good form before this break, they had really turned their season around.
“They are a club with financial firepower, they have been for a few years in this division. They have a healthy budget down there, they get good players through the door and they have been a handful for most teams they have faced recently and they’ll be a handful for us. We’ll prepare as best we can and give them all the respect we give every one – but like every one, we think we can win the game.”
And Mcnulty reckons the 2-1 win against Woking in midweek will help the Dale cause heading into the last eight games of the campaign.
Mcnulty also cited the support from the terraces as a key feature in Tuesday’s turnaround.
“The result can definitely spur us on, it was a massive positive, and the support is a constant spur,” he said. “Togetherness, unity and support is constant. In what walk of life does anyone not want or like support?
“Now, we have to do everything we can to try to inspire our fans to support us, but when they find a way to do it without much inspiration, when we are in a difficult moment, it’s massive. It’s nice to give them a return for that. It came together for us on Tuesday because of that togetherness, because of that support.
“We still have eight cup finals remaining. We had some difficulties on Tuesday with a couple of guys out on their feet towards the end, Ian Henderson was sent off, we have injuries and the squad is still critical in terms of our ability to take one out and put one in. It’s not so easy for us, it hasn’t been all season and it won’t finish that way either.
“So unity and togetherness is massive.”
Cian Hayes and Devante Rodney scored memorable strikes to cancel out Charley Kendall’s opening goal, which followed a mistake from skipper Ethan Ebankslandell.
“Two moments of individual brilliance for our goals which were great moments in the stadium, two players who are capable of producing highquality moments that we have enjoyed when we’ve had them this season and missed them when we haven’t,” he said.
“Sometimes individuals can change games for you, we’re really happy to have Cian with us and Dev back on the field also because it was a tough game.
“I was very aware of where Woking are at, how they are playing. They are a really challenging team to play against. Two of their games I watched recently, against two very good teams in Gateshead and Altrincham, and they managed to take the game away from both of those teams.
“I would consider ourselves to be one of the football-playing teams in the division and I know Woking have an ability to take that style of game away from the occasion and they did a good job doing that. They are fuelled by a desire to survive and they are a difficult force to come up against and we felt that.
“But from being behind we showed unbelievable guts and character having made it difficult for ourselves again with moments we were disappointed with, but to find the guts and character is something I’m really grateful for.
“Game after game, win or loss, great performance, poor performance, I’ve always been able to call on the character and it’s a great sign to come from behind to win a game.
“It means everything to them, they want to deliver for the fans, they want the club on an upward trajectory, they want to do their part.
“They want to make Saturdays good afternoons, Tuesdays good evenings and they are disappointed when they make mistakes.
We’ve had a spate of critical mistakes which have shaped the way games have gone for us and made occasions much more difficult than they need to be. Tuesday was another one.
“But all they can do from that moment is fight and give everything and it’s difficult.
“Genuinely, so much credit goes to the players for what is a really difficult game to reverse, pure character.”