Brian Barry-Murphy spoke to iFollow Dale after Saturday’s opening day defeat at Swindon Town.
He commented: “The result is obviously disappointing for us. In terms of the overall performance, we never reached the high standards that we set in the past two games and we didn’t quite play with the intensity and speed that we were hoping to do.
“But, as I said before the Huddersfield game last week, we’re at the very early stages of our season and for whatever reason the intensity and speed wasn’t there for us today.
“We’re always very honest in our approach to the game and we finished the game very strong. The goals came at a bad time for us, as I suppose they always do, but the first-half movements just weren’t quick enough.
“We didn’t dominate or control the game as I would have liked, and as such we were almost living in hope that they wouldn’t score and that’s not the way we want to play.
“The key detail of two set-plays for the first two goals for Swindon were disappointing from our point of view and they gave a whole different complexion to the feel of the first-half.
“These types of games, although they feel like it now, are the best experiences in the world. We speak about dealing with adversity and how we want to overcome that, so even though today feels very disappointing, I find it quite exciting, the way I see our lads behave and come back.
“We kept going right to the end. We didn’t have any real great quality or moments but when Kwadwo [Baah] came on the pitch we looked to have a punch in the final third which we’d been missing, and we finished the game with a goal which is good for us moving forward.”
Fabio Tavares and Baah were introduced as substitutes in the second-half, with the latter setting up Jimmy Keohane’s consolation goal.
“He’s [Baah] building up and improving his fitness. His levels are probably different to everyone else’s, because he’s probably not as fit as the other lads, bearing in mind he’s come from a background of street football in London. He’s still developing that side of his game so I’m mindful of that fact. We have high hopes for him moving forward, but at the moment we have to be selective when we use him.”