Dale’s Head of Academy Coaching, Rick Ashcroft, reflects on Wednesday’s FA Cup second round tie v Coventry City...
“The players stuck in, but for me it took us until they got their fourth goal for us to impose ourselves on the game like we demand.
“We need the lads to recognise that the consistency in their performance has got to be for the majority of the game. They’ve got to try to control the tempo, control possession and let the ball be your best friend. We can’t take 60 minutes and four goals in the back of your own goal for it to happen.
“They kept going, though, and they deserve some credit for that because the last 20/25 minutes was a lot better. We piled on the pressure and nearly ended up overturning the four goal deficit - the character shown is a positive.
“But the main positive to take from the match is the lads learning and developing from it. Hopefully it hurts enough to realise what we’re trying to do, how we’re trying to do it, what we expect of them, what they need to be doing is going to make them more successful and have more of an opportunity.”