Manager Brian Barry-Murphy on Dale’s 2-1 win over Swindon Town, Dale’s first victory at the Crown Oil Arena since October…
“I thought it was a brilliant reaction from our performance on Saturday [against Fleetwood Town]. To finally get the elusive win at home after such a long time is hopefully an enjoyable experience for our supporters. We want to give them more of that now as we progress towards the end of the season," said BBM.
“We played with a lot of courage and we controlled the game much better. I thought we were dominant for long spells and our technical play was of a very high standard. I think we’re at our best when we do that, and we created good chances. It was significant in that we still have players missing at the top end of the pitch, but we were very good technically and we got a lot of players in from behind. Jake Beesley, Ollie Rathbone, Conor Grant, Stephen Dooley to a lesser extent and Aaron Morley.
“We got good players forward from midfield and created good chances. I think our aggression and our personality were evident, and I thought we thoroughly deserved the game. We created a host of attacking chances and some really good clear cut chances, and we pretty much kept Swindon at bay for the whole game - they created little.”
Jimmy Keohane put Brian Barry-Murphy’s side ahead early on, breaking the deadlock after just 12 minutes.
“In the natural flow of the game I thought it [the timing of the goal] was very important because our play was very good. The players this season have had a lot of set-backs at home, so to change that dynamic and feeling was great for the players emotionally, and we really took it onto another level.
“Some of the moves in the second half we very high end and I felt as if it could have been better - we want more. But I felt as if there were clear signs and certain players exhibited really great expression and skill.
“If you see Stephen Dooley playing the way he did, the rest of the team fed off that. We saw Conor Grant grow into the game and create really good attacking moments. It was a really great performance from our lads and I think it’s great for our supporters that they finally get to have a win that keeps us in an interesting position.”
Conor Grant grabbed Dale’s second nearly midway through the second half, scoring his first goal for the club and the first of his senior career.
“I think it would be really easy to forget what age Conor is and where he’s come from. He’s had no league experience so it’s great for him to be making such an impression in League One.
“I thought once he scored his goal there was some real magic and real creativity - I thought it was very, very good. It’s great reward for him individually but very much a team performance and one that we’ll be doing everything we can to really stimulate some momentum to put us in a really good position as we move forward.”
Watch the Boss’ post-match interview in full on iFollow Dale.