First team coach Lee Riley says the players are looking forward to a return to league action, following last weekend’s international break.
“The break came at a good time for us after a busy August, but everybody is ready to get back into the league games,” he said.
“The break was beneficial for everyone. Whether we see immediate rewards on Saturday or not is something we can’t control, but we’re convinced we’ll see rewards from the work we’ve done both on and off the training pitch during that time as we go into the next block of games and further on in the season."
On Saturday, Dale face a Peterborough United side that are unbeaten in their last four and Riley is expecting a tough test.
“Peterborough are a very good footballing team and have got very good individuals. They’re also very well organised, so it will be a real test for us going there and a good measure of where we’re at as a team.
“We work to certain constants as a team, that we’ll look to try and implement all the time. The only tweaks to that will be depending on the opposition, but we try and focus most of our work on us. It would be negligent not to look at the opposition, so we do focus on whoever we’re playing and make small tweaks, but in general, we have certain constants that we work to.”
Away from league action, a youthful Dale side took on Manchester City Under-21s in the Leasing.com Trophy on Wednesday evening.
Peter Thomas became the competition’s youngest ever debutant on the night and also set a new club record, while the squad, with the exception of a few senior pros, was made up of Academy graduates and youth team players.
“It was a proud night for everyone - those nights always are. At Rochdale, that competition has traditionally been used as an opportunity to provide players who deserve it with a chance to get a taste of first team football.
“They are always good nights, especially when they are boys playing in their first games. It’s always special when those moments come at home, too.
“We all want to win every game. When we put the younger players in, we always pick a team that we think can win the game, but we also have to appreciate that the result might not always go our way, so the main thing we’re looking at is what the players can take out of it and how the senior pros support them boys in those games. From that point of view it was perfect, and the score didn’t take that way from it all.”