Manager Brian Barry-Murphy reflects on Dale’s 1-1 draw with Northampton Town at the Crown Oil Arena…
“From my point of view, it was a very enjoyable game to watch. That maybe tainted by the end result because we got the equaliser,” said the Boss.
“We’ve had cases in the last few weeks where we’ve had similar games and similar patterns with teams scoring and then defending deep against us. We haven’t managed to break them down, so to finally get a goal for our efforts was a huge reward for everybody.”
He continued: “It’s very rewarding for the players in terms of what they deserved. I’ve been very conscious of trying to stay balanced when the results haven’t gone well but that gets harder because the moments become difficult and you start to - it’s human nature - question are we creating enough chances, are we going to score enough goals, so to get a goal and to create good chances in the second half was very rewarding for us. The next part of that is creating more of those chances and scoring the goals.
“That [the end product] is still something that we consistently we want to improve on. And even tonight, although we got the goal and a result, we can definitely do better with that. The players are fully aware of that and it’s something that they also want to improve.”
And BBM says he’s filled with a lot optimism.
“The evolution of the team is going to take quite a while, but even in defeat in the last couple of weeks, I feel like it’s a very exciting team for everybody to look forward to. That’s certainly the way I felt and I hope our supporters share that optimism despite the recent results going against us.
“We’ve had a lot of change but I just genuinely, if I was in the shoes of a Rochdale supporter, which I am, see it as being a very exciting time for us where the team is naturally changing. And not necessarily just the younger brigade, a combination of that and seeing Haydon Roberts and Kwadwo Baah have such an impact on the game, as well as Stephen Humphrys and Jake Beesley doing work for the players, I think that it’s going to be a very exciting time. It might not always be easy this season, but I think it will be exciting.”
Goal scorer Stephen Humphrys, who made his return from injury at the weekend, played the full game. BBM admits that wasn’t part of the original plan but says completing 90 minutes is down to the hard work the forward has put in.
“The advice from our fitness team was 60 minutes and that was the agreement, but I just thought he looked relatively fresh, which is testament to his fitness and the amount of work he has put in. With the way the game went in terms of us having lots of possession, we were relying on one chance and I was hopeful that if one chance presented itself that he may score and he did.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.