Rochdale welcome Northampton Town to Spotland this Saturday for the opening game of the League Two season.
Dale head into the encounter following last weekend’s seven goal thriller against Championship side Barnsley.
Ahead of the fixture, Manager John Coleman has been giving his thoughts on Saturday’s defeat, and explains more about his expectations for the season ahead.
“I’m still disappointed that we conceded four goals at home and that we lost the match,” said Coleman. “I know we played some good football but I can’t transmit to the players that losing is acceptable; it doesn’t matter what level of opposition you are playing against. The game was very winnable and we can’t pass up games that are winnable. Anyone who thinks that I’m going to be happy with losing, regardless of levels of performance, is sadly mistaken.
“We can take encouragement from some of the passing play that we made and the chances created, but we’ve got to iron out the mistakes that we made and that has been the focus of what we have been doing in training this week and we’ll continue to work hard to get things right on the training ground.”
He continued: “We’ve got to make sure that teams who play us come out of it thinking they’ve had a tough game, and then build a reputation so that teams travelling here thinking that it is going to be a hard place to come to. When we travel to the opposition we’ve got to be up for a fight. We’ll only do that, we’ll only stamp our mark on the league, by turning in good solid performances, starting with this weekend.”