Eoghan O’Connell reflects on the first month of the season...
The defender joined on a two-year contract in the summer, turning down a number of other offers to ply his trade at the Crown Oil Arena.
“I’m really enjoying it,” said O’Connell.
“We’ve had a good start and that makes it all the better when you’re joining a new Club. I’m loving it so far.
“I spoke to Brian before I came in. From what he said, we think about the game in the same way.
“Most of our performances have been really good. We’re trying to play some good football at the moment and it’s going well for us.
“Especially in the second-half [at Southend United], when we really got a grip on the game after scoring, I was standing at the back watching some of our attacking play thinking ‘this is incredible to be a part of’.
“It was a really good performance, especially away from home, and we were delighted with it.”
The 23-year-old also spoke about the defensive side of Dale’s play, having kept three clean sheets in the opening six league games.
“I said to Nults and Bobby [Jim McNulty and Robert Sánchez] about the clean sheets. We’re delighted with that.
“We had a couple of blocks near the end the other day [at Southend] to make sure we got the clean sheet.
“As well as being a good attacking team, we don’t want it to be used as an excuse to be leaky defensively. We want to be good defensively and I think we’ve been that so far.”
The Irishman has formed a solid centre-half partnership with Jim McNulty so far this season, something he has been delighted with.
“I’ve said it to him on numerous occasions that it’s probably the most I’ve enjoyed playing.
“We really suit each other and the way the team plays is good for us as well. I’ve hugely enjoyed playing alongside him and hopefully it continues.
“Bobby [Robert Sánchez] in goal is as good as I’ve seen with his feet. He takes so much pressure off because you know you can use him to get out.
“I think everyone has bought in to the way that we want to play. We’ve had games where we’ve made changes, but everyone is focussed on the same game plan and that’s a huge thing as well.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.