Manager Brian Barry-Murphy reflects on Dale’s narrow 1-0 defeat to Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium.
Jon Taylor’s 32nd minute goal proved to be the difference between the two sides.
“I thought we deserved something from the game. We played really well for long spells,” said BBM.
“I thought we created some good chances - we should have scored in the first half and there was Stephen Humphrys’ chance in the second half which was our best one. But we played against a very good team and we limited them to very few chances, so overall I’m very pleased with the lads.
“But that’s tinged with a real sense of disappointment on their behalf because I feel as if we had been as clinical in the final third as we have been, we would have got a result.”
BBM continued: “The performance was calmer than what we’ve seen in recent weeks, in terms of the goalscoring exploits. We were playing against a high calibre opponent but we matched them and went toe for toe.
“We had no fit defenders apart from Haydon Roberts so there was never any other thought in my mind than to be as aggressive as possible and to try and go for the win. That’s something that the lads really reflected, so to not get the goals I thought we deserved was disappointing, but in terms of the overall performance if we can reproduce that on a weekly basis we’ll all be very happy.”
The Boss added: “The lads didn’t feel sorry for ourselves at any stage [after going behind]. We went behind against a good team and managed to create good chances in the second half. I feel as if I want more for the lads and I think there are standards that we can reach higher, irrespective of how our numbers are. I just felt that we could have been more clinical in the final third and that’s fine margins. Doncaster had little or no chances [other than the one they] score.
“We made several chances. I’m not saying we deserved to win the game by any clear cut manner or anything but I felt against a very good team that we implemented our game plan really well but we didn’t quite get the last bit of detail in the final third right.”
Watch BBM’s interview in full on iFollow Dale.