Manager Keith Hill spoke to Dale Player following Tuesday night’s defeat at home to Scunthorpe United…
“I thought we put on a really good first half performance but found ourselves one down. That wasn’t the problem, it was what happened in the second half that was a bigger problem," said Hill.
“If I’m being honest I don’t really want to talk too much about what happened in the second half and the way that the game ended because we weren’t given an opportunity to reflect our capabilities. That’s not down to fault of the players or their determent.
“We haven’t got thrashed at home, we have been denied an opportunity.”
He continued: “The game lasts 95 minutes and you’ve got to try and affect the game as much as you possibly can over that period of time. We weren’t given the opportunity to affect the game like we have done previously in the latter stages of matches when we have rinsed the opposition of their energy by keeping possession like we did in the first half.
“When Jack O’Connell got sent off all I was really concerned about trying to achieve was a plus five goal difference. We had no chance of winning the game at that point, the spectacle for supporters was over and unfortunately we didn’t managed to achieve our objective, which now puts us on plus three.
"We worked exceptionally hard to try and get to plus seven, so I wasn’t too concerned about losing the game, at the end of the day it's the goal difference which has probably affected us and might affect us in the next four or five league games.”
The red cards shown to Olly Lancashire and Jack O’Connell mean Hill will be without his usual centre half pairing for Saturday’s trip to York City, but he says he won’t be bringing in any cover.
“I’m not going to recruit just for the sake of it. I have an exceptionally good squad, there’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing, I’m really pleased with where we’re at, the points that we’ve got and the way we’re trying to play.
"Let’s be right, some of the stuff in the first half was just absolute beauty and I was reasonably happy with the performance and with the opportunity to go on and get something out of the game, but it has all been taken away from us. If it had been taken away from us by the opposition, then wow, hands up, but it hasn’t been.
“We’ll just draw a line under it. I’m upset, I’m angry but I can’t change what has just occurred, we’ll learn from it and we’ll get an opportunity to put it right on Saturday.”
The full interview is available on Dale Player.