Manager Brian Barry-Murphy reflects on Dale’s 4-1 defeat to Peterborough United at the West Homes Stadium.
“I think we were surprised by the intensity of Peterborough in the first half and I’m not really sure why because we had planned for that and we knew how dangerous they were and how much pressure they would put us under. But we were just a little bit taken aback by their intensity of their play and, as such, we didn’t deal with it very well in the first half,” said the Boss.
Jonson Clarke-Harris netted a hat-trick in his side’s victory, but while it's rumoured the striker joined the Posh for £1.2m in the summer, BBM says he won’t use that as an excuse.
“But we don’t hide behind the fact that we’re on a different playing field financially and it’s not an excuse that we want to use. We’re focused on taking people on, on the pitch and dealing with that with our own players but we weren’t able to do that in the first half. That’s down to a number of factors but what we could control we didn’t do well enough and that had a large impact on the game.”
He added: “I just felt as if we didn’t display any personality in the first half and we’ve been here before. Last year was totally different in that we lost heavily here but we played quite well despite what people will tell you, but in the first half I didn’t feel we were aggressive enough with our play or really imposed our personality on the game and, as such, I was really disappointed.
“In the second half, for me, there’s no great learning for us as I felt that Peterborough took their foot off the gas and I wouldn’t like to be fooled by that. There’s a lot we can do better and that will be the aim for us moving forward.”
Watch Brian Barry-Murphy’s post-match interview in full on iFollow Dale.