Brian Barry-Murphy wants his players to attack with courage and aggressiveness against Accrington Stanley on Saturday.
Dale welcome John Coleman’s Stanley side to the Crown Oil Arena at the weekend, with just one point and one place separating the two teams.
Barry-Murphy says he was pleased with his side’s second-half display at AFC Wimbledon last weekend, and that he wants them to continue in that manner.
“I just want the players to continue to attack with the same courage and aggressiveness they showed in the second-half,” said the Dale boss.
“There were elements of the first-half where I felt we had the chance to display the same attacking intent that we did in the second-half. That was disappointing for me in the first-half, and I asked the attacking players to display more conviction in what we had worked on.
“We’ve worked on patterns of play and application of those in training. I thought we were a little bit cautious in the way we attacked in the first-half. I didn’t want the fact we conceded three goals in the first-half to take away from that and just try to protect our goal.
“We wanted the guys to continue to attack with bravery and total conviction in what they do, and they did that. People will say AFC Wimbledon were three nil up and they didn’t go for it, but I didn’t think we allowed them to. I think we had total control of the game. Our personality shone through in the second-half and we committed to attack.
“We should have scored a lot more goals than we did, but we weren’t able to. The challenge for us this week has been to continue to work on that and get better at that.
“It's very much a case of focusing on what we do, evolving it, and just get better at it. Our players are fully committed to that and it’s something that they enjoy doing.”
Barry-Murphy is also looking forward to a game against a local rival in Accrington.
“There a lot of similarities [between the Clubs] which should be noted. They’re a great club run by people who seem to run in the Club in a similar manner to ours.
“From my experience there seems to be a great respect and admiration for another. A lot of the players know each other very, very well, and there’s a very competitive rivalry taking place and the games have been nip and tuck.
“They could have gone either way over the last couple of seasons. It’s one of the local derby elements that remains in-tact in our area, and with recent events at Bury, it has taken on even more importance that we maintain and treasure these moments. The derby games take precedent and they’re exciting days.”
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