Brian Barry-Murphy labelled Saturday’s defeat to promotion chasing Coventry City was “tough to take” after losing out 2-1.
Aaron Wilbraham’s 72ndminute consolation wasn’t enough to spark a full comeback after a two goal deficit.
Dale boss Barry-Murphy said a number of factors contributed to the result.
“Obviously it is a difficult result to take” said the Irishman. “Probably Coventry scoring so early in the game was a setback that was very hard for the lads.
“In the first half there were chances where we had very good chances ourselves against a high calibre opposition.
“We weren’t able to take those and it was a tough game. There is no denying that fact.
“I think we gave as good as we got in the second half. We could have done certain things better, no doubt about it, but the lads gave everything.
“We didn’t quite get the balance between keeping the ball and penetrating through the back.
“That was a number of reasons – the opposition, the conditions and the pitch.
“Aaron had a great impact on the game. Sat with him, Tyler Smith and Matty Done on the bench gives you attacking options.
“We didn’t get to use them all because of the early substitutions.
“There were a few chances where I thought we were going to get that equaliser.
“Against Coventry there were never going to be loads of chances. When we did get them unfortunately we didn’t take them.”
Kwadwo Baah had to be taken off in the first period for Matty Done, with the youngster experiencing an illness early on.
Eoghan O’Connell was subbed for Jim McNulty at half-time after pulling up.
“We have had a lot of situations this season where there has been a lot of adversity in games,” Barry-Murphy continued.
“We’ve had to think on the move. The early setback hasn’t been a big problem for us this season.
“We conceded after so many seconds at Doncaster and we still managed to play exceptionally well.
“The lads are used to that and have great mental resilience.
“Kwadwo wasn’t feeling well. Once that became apparent we had to get him off the pitch as soon as possible.
“Eoghan O’Connell damaged his hamstring, hopefully not too seriously.
“You are making subs at a really early stage in the game which means the second half was quite restricted.
“You always have in the back of your mind, if anything else happens you are down to ten men.”