Brian Barry-Murphy reflects on Dale’s 1-1 draw with Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium…
“I thought it was a great result. I thought we played really well in phases,” said BBM in his post-match interview.
“It was always going to be a difficult game here, we know Gillingham very well and we’ve had some tough days down here in the past, so we were fully prepared for that. But there are different ways to get results and I thought our commitment and our resilience were first class, the same as we’ve had in every game really.
“We had moments in the game but so did they, so there’s no qualms about the result, I thought it was a fair result. Our lads deserved it.
“They gave everything in preparation for the game and during the game. The conditions were the complete opposite of the Oxford game, it was warm like a summers’ day and it was testing for our guys physically, but it was the same for Gillingham. We worked them hard and we had an equal share of opportunities in the game.
After Ian Henderson had given Dale a 38th minute lead, Mark Byrne levelled the scoring during stoppage time at the end of the first half, heading home from a Tom Eaves cross.
“The lads were disappointed [at conceding] but I’ve been in their shoes. Gillingham have got good attacking players and they score from set-pieces all the time. I’ve been on the end of being the man whose guy scores the goal and you can’t always control it. They can score a goal at any time. I was just looking for the way we started the second-half after conceding, and it was similar to when we conceded against Scunthorpe, it was a good reaction, so I have no problem with them scoring.”
And BBM was full of praise for the 137 Dale fans who made the trip for the match.
“Our supporters that travelled down were incredible again. This is one of our hardest away journeys really. There was a great sense of appreciation from the players for the support we got, and I think that was shown by the result. We gave everything for the cause.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.