Brian Barry-Murphy insists there will be no complacency from his players going into the final game of the season at Charlton Athletic.
Three consecutive wins resulted in Dale securing their League One status with a game to spare last weekend, but the boss says that hasn’t affected the way his players have prepared for Saturday’s game.
“The players are very aware of the task in hand,” said Barry-Murphy.
“I’m looking to approach the weekend’s game in a very serious and confident manner, and the players have been really focused again after what was an emotionally draining weekend, because of the importance of the game.
“It would have been easy for them to slacken off but I’ve seen a great effort from the players and a great excitement to go into what is one of the biggest stadium’s in the league, and one of the best teams in the league.
“We view Charlton as the outstanding team in the division, in terms of the style of football they play, and it’s something we would like to get near as time progresses.
“They’ve been the form team for a long period of time and they play a style of football that is extremely challenging and can be exacting physically.
“Even though the lads were very entitled to celebrate the success they had at the weekend, I think in one part of their minds, they’ll be very conscious of the task in hand going down to such an outstanding team on Saturday.
“We’ve prepared really well for the game. For us to have any sort of complacency would be ridiculous, and it’s not there so it’s not an issue.
“My thoughts on the game are probably quite boring to the supporters, in that it’s a serious game, we’ll prepare properly and in quite a non-emotional matter.
“But I think for the supporters, by all means go and enjoy themselves. It’s a game where they can have no pressure and just enjoy the occasion, and hopefully we can give them something to shout about.
“It’s not a negative experience, we intend on playing in a positive, aggressive manner, whether that’s good enough or not on the day we don’t know, but we can control how we play and the way we’ve been playing is really, really good.”
The full interview is available to watch on iFollow. Click HERE to view.