Manager Keith Hill spoke to iFollow ahead of Rochdale’s trip to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.
Dale’s goalless draw at Blackpool on Tuesday night meant they became the first side to take points from Bloomfield Road this season.
It was also Rochdale’s third consecutive clean sheet and Hill believes the performance and result will give the players confidence to perform on the road.
“I’m encouraged,” said Hill.
“I think both teams could have, and should have scored on Tuesday, but I think a draw was a fair reflection of both teams going for it. I don’t think it was a boring 0-0. I think it would have been disappointing for either manager to have lost the game.
“It gives the players encouragement and belief. The courage to perform away from home has been missing somewhat, but it was evident for 90 minutes on Tuesday.
“I think if we’d have played with a similar sort of commitment, endeavour and endurance against MK Dons then we would have won, and probably against Shrewsbury Town as well.
“Those two matches in particular really hurt me as a manager. Having scored two goals against Shrewsbury and MK, we should have taken something from those games.
“Our away from home strategy has got to be better, and I saw that as being an encouragement from Tuesday night’s result and performance.”
Last season’s trip to the Cherry Red Records Stadium saw Dale defeated 3-1 after being reduced to ten men in first half stoppage time.
“The game was turned on its head with Keith Keane being sent off. I thought we were well in the game. We created some great opportunities in the first half, but again it’s just typical of some of the things we’ve been doing away from home – this self-implosion, if you like, and one or two mini-mistakes leading to big mistakes.
“It’s very difficult when you go away from home and go down to ten men. But last season I was very encouraged with the way we started the game and took the game to the opposition.
“Something we have to consider and work hard against is the self-implosion away from home, and if we’re better with that we’ll be very successful, especially with our home record.”
You can watch the full interview on iFollow.