Manager Brian Barry-Murphy’s post-match reaction to Dale’s 2-0 defeat to Burton Albion at the Crown Oil Arena…
“I was a disappointing afternoon for us,” said BBM.
“I always try to see the positives and look for real reasons why our performance would look like us, and today physically we just couldn’t reproduce what we did on Tuesday night [at Northampton] or in previous weeks, and, as such, it became a difficult day for us.
“Burton’s intensity in the second half was a little bit too much for us, which was disappointing, and obviously Ollie’s sending off makes it even more difficult, but there were a lot of parts of our performance today that weren’t up to the standards that we’ve reached in previous weeks.
“I think there’s a direct correlation between our best performances over a long period of time and the lads’ physical output, and, today, it was clear that we couldn’t reach those heights. It’s very obvious a lot of our players were, without making excuses, unable to do that.
“They’ve had a lot of games in a short period of time and today looked like it was just a game too far for us. But irrespective of that, our skill levels were a lot lower than they have been previously, and, as such, the performance wasn’t anywhere near the levels we had hoped.”
Jimmy Keohane missed the game after sustaining a foot injury in Dale’s midweek match against the Cobblers.
“Jimmy had a severe bang to his foot on Tuesday night against Northampton. There are no breaks, which was the major worry, but he was in no place to be considered for today.
“It’s obviously a difficult moment for us when results like these happen because our squad is very stretched, and this season has been a tale of losing bunches of players in one particular area of the pitch. It’s not an excuse and I’m not looking to hide behind anything today because the performance levels were nowhere near what we would want.
“We’re at a stage of the season where if we could detach myself emotionally from the moment, we have a whole host of forward players who are missing and, as such, the burden falls on the lads who are available, and like I said, for whatever reason today physically we just couldn’t get anywhere near the heights that we would need to display us in our best light.”
Ollie Rathbone was dismissed with 12 minutes left to play after being shown a straight red card following an altercation with Jonny Smith.
“Ollie got caught up in the moment. He was fouled and it’s a pretty reckless incident from the opposition players’ point of view, but we have no control over what he does, we can only control our own actions and I have no complaints with the referee’s decision.”
Watch BBM’s post-match interview in full on iFollow Dale.