Brian Barry-Murphy is confident his side can bounce back from a late defeat last time out, as Dale welcome Gillingham to the Crown Oil Arena on Saturday.
A 94th minute penalty saw Dale succumb to defeat at high-flying Wycombe Wanderers last weekend.
However, the Dale boss has been encouraged by his players’ reaction in training this week.
“The nature of the defeat last weekend hits you very hard emotionally,” said Barry-Murphy.
“We felt as if we deserved to win the game rather than losing it, so to not even draw was a hard pill to swallow.
“The lads have trained amazingly well and have shown the ability to refocus quickly after defeats this season.
“That’s been hugely evident this week and they really look ready for the game on Saturday.
“It’s easy to latch on to the 2020 factor, but we’ve been in very good form since the turn of the year and probably even before that.”
It will be the second time Dale have faced the Gills in under a month, following the game at the Priestfield Stadium at the end of December.
Barry-Murphy says it was a tough match at Gillingham but is buoyed by his side’s recent home form.
“It had similarities to the Wycombe experience, in terms of the defining moment of the game at Gillingham came quite late.
“It was a very tough game against them. They’ve been on amazing run and haven’t been beaten for a long time.
“Our last home performance was exceptional against Bolton Wanderers and before that was Newcastle United.
“We’re in good form ourselves at home and we’re starting to see the results that we always believed our performances would produce.
“We’re very keen to put on a similar performance for our supporters which we believe will lead to a very exciting game.”
The Dale boss is also looking forward to welcoming large numbers of youngsters to the game, with the Kids For A Quid initiative taking place on the Club’s Community Day.
“Any initiatives we’ve done this season have been an amazing success. Every time we’ve had stacks and stacks of youngsters present, the atmosphere has only been enhanced.
“We can’t wait for that. We support everything the Club are doing in their efforts to try and increase every part of our attendance.
“Everybody within the Club is doing amazing work on that side of things and our job, which is equally as important, is to put on a performance that excites supporters young and old, and we’ll try to do that.”
Click HERE to watch the full interview with Barry-Murphy on iFollow.