Assistant Manager Chris Beech has been reflecting on the weekend’s 2-2 draw with Bradford City, as well as looking ahead to Tuesday night’s League One fixture v Fleetwood Town, in his latest interview.
Reflecting on the game at the Coral Windows Stadium, Beech commented: “The players played well on Saturday. We talked a lot about Bradford’s strengths and we set up in the week to make sure that we were competitive against their strengths, while putting down our game, which, if we’re being really honest, we’ve lost our way with a little bit in terms of that possession based football.
“We got it back on Saturday and we had some great opportunities to win the game. We went full tilt against a team that, let’s be right, had 18,000 or so people there willing them into a play-off spot. We did very well.”
Dale are back in action on Tuesday night, as Fleetwood Town make the trip to Spotland for the rearranged fixture from last month.
The Cod Army head into the match after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Scunthorpe United at the Highbury Stadium, which moved them back out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
In recent weeks Fleetwood Town Manager Steven Pressley has strengthened his side as they look to move away from the relegation places, bringing in Shola Ameobi, Wes Burns, Bob Harris and Marcus Nilsson.
Beech is wary of their threat.
“We’re playing a good opponent tomorrow evening. They’re fighting for their lives and they’ve had another influx of players. They’ve already done that and now they’re doing it again because they they’re not getting what they want. They don’t want to be involved in a relegation situation, but who does.
“They’re trying their best to get away from that and they’ve had a great result against Scunthorpe on Saturday.
“We’ve got to make sure that we continue down a pathway of putting our game plan together because we’re capable of beating anybody. We’re really good at forcing our game on an opponent when we’re at full tilt. We’re not a team that plays average and wins. We have to be very good to get the results that we want and that’s what we’ll be preparing the players for.”
He continued: “It’s important that we look to do our best against our next opponent, rather than look at a bigger picture or at a set of games.
“There are three points available tomorrow night. We know that Fleetwood are going to come here confident after their great result on Saturday. They’ve got very good players so we’ll have to be at our best.
“We’ve got to look after our own house and do our own business.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.