Ashley Eastham has been looking ahead to Saturday’s trip to the Coral Windows Stadium.
Rochdale head into the game against Bradford City on the back of Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Crewe Alexandra at Spotland.
Dale opened up an early two goal lead, only for the Alex to net a quick fire double to secure a share of the points.
Speaking to Dale PlayerHD after Tuesday night’s match, Eastham admitted conceding twice after opening up a two goal advantage was disappointing.
“I’m feeling a little bit gutted after that, to be honest,” said Eastham.
“We lost on Saturday and we wanted to get a win tonight [Tuesday]. Being 2-0 up, you shouldn’t, in any situation, be letting any team get back into the game.
“But we’ve got to be men about it - marking from set-pieces and doing the right things. It’s clichéd stuff but it gets you points. We’ve got to do it on Saturday because we’ve got Bradford, who are a big, big side. We’ve really got to be men on Saturday.”
He continued: “Bradford are a good side and they’ve won two on the bounce so they’re going to have their tails up. We, first and foremost, are going to have to keep a clean sheet, that’s the main thing - we need to be doing that.
“With having the likes of Hendo and Peter V, people like that, there’s always a goal in us so we need to stay strong.
“We’re all looking forward to it [the game against Bradford], we’re a little bit down about it [Tuesday night’s result], but we’ll put it aside. We’ve got 16 games left to really make something of this season. We’re not prepared to just let it die out.
“We’ve got to be positive. We’re in a bit of a sticky spot at the moment but we’ve got the characters in there to get us out of it, there’s no doubt about that.”
Ashley Eastham is back in the side after featuring in Dale's last two outings, his first starts for the club since November.
He’s pleased to be back in involved but understands there was a need to be patient.
“We started the season extremely well so you’ve got to sit and wait your chance, and that’s what I’ve done. You’ve got to be respectful to the rest of the players and I’m more than happy to do that. Now I’m in, I’m looking to kick on.
“Footballers want to be playing football. You’ve got to keep your head down, train hard, try to impress the Manager and when you get your chance, you’ve got to take it.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.