Assistant Manager Chris Beech spoke to Dale PlayerHD ahead of Saturday’s League 1 fixture v Swindon Town…
The match is Rochdale’s final home game of the season and securing a play-off place is still mathematically possible.
Barnsley are currently in the driving seat to land the last play-off place, but Dale, along with Gillingham, Scunthorpe United and Sheffield United, are hot on their heels in the chasing pack, making for an exciting end to the season.
Rochdale, who have already beaten last season’s points total (63 points), having currently amassed 65 points, are on track to surpass or equal the club’s highest ever number of points accumulated at this level, which is 68 points.
Beech is keen to finish the campaign in a positive fashion.
“It’s a slim chance but it’s still a chance,” said Beech regarding the play-off challenge.
“We’ll definitely know either way going into the last game of the season after this Saturday’s result.
“We want a positive energy on Saturday - we’re going to approach the last two games with an importance to them. We want to beat that points tally [as mentioned above], but we can’t take anything for granted.
“One more win will equal the same amount of wins from last season, while we’re in a position to beat the best points total we’ve ever had at this level of football, which would help support our highest ever finish from last season.
“But please don’t underestimate Swindon because they are in that free flowing situation where we’re going to have to be at our best to go against a possession based team that might have the ball for long periods of time even although we’re playing at home.”
Saturday will be the third time that Dale have faced Swindon Town this season. Rochdale were 3-1 winners over the Robins were two teams met at Spotland in the FA Cup in November, before Swindon inflicted a 2-1 defeat on Keith Hill’s side in the league a few weeks later.
Beech offered his thoughts on the game.
“This will be our third game against them this season and I think we’ll get to see the best of Swindon this Saturday.
“I think they’re in that sort of form – the shackles are off, they’re safe and their better players, according to their manager, are back on the pitch.
“We know that we’ve got to deal with last Saturday’s result and performance, and we’re definitely looking to put a good show on for our supporters.
“They’ve been excellent, they were excellent at Port Vale and they’ve been really good, especially in the last two or three months when we’ve been trying our best to try and get something out of a situation.
“If we can give supporters something to shout about, then it makes us feel great because they support us in our actions.
"It’s a relationship and we want to make sure we finish our last game at home, continuing with the great record that we’ve got.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.