Manager Brian Barry-Murphy reflects on Dale’s 4-4 draw with Charlton Athletic at The Valley…
“I’m immensely proud of the way the lads played and applied themselves. To come here and score four goals, take Charlton on and be on the front foot for the whole game was testament to the players’ personalities and the way we want to play,” said BBM.
“It’s a very positive mentality. We have, in terms of our squad, key defensive players missing. Eoghan O’Connell and Jimmy Ryan as part of that, and Paul McShane hurt his calf in the warm-up, so he wasn’t available either, despite being on the bench, so Jim McNulty is asked to come in cold.
“We’re very stretched in that area of the pitch with a very small squad, so we felt the best form of defence was to attack and we did that from the first minute to the last. We know that times during the second half Charlton had us penned in, but we never lost our attacking intent. There are obviously things we can do better, but the overall application and personality of the squad was amazing from my point of view.”
Matt Lund bagged his 10th goal of the season in the victory, while Kwadwo Baah netted a brace and Stephen Humphrys also added his name to the score sheet.
“He [Lundy] looks a major threat in terms of his movement and his ability to create space for himself in the box. It was obviously a good assist from Kwadwo and we’re trying to be creative in getting him on the pitch, as well as Jake Beesley and Stephen Humphrys and Matty Lund, so to come here with so many attacking players, we just felt this group was the best way for us to play. The fact we’ve scored seven and conceded seven in the last two games, shows we have those attacking players that can score goals.”
And BBM was pleased with the way the players continued on the front foot, despite the Addicks scoring two quick fire goals midway through the second half to draw level from 4-2 down, ultimately securing a point from the game.
“We have no back up in terms of what we can do defensively and we need players in to add to that area of the pitch, but having been a player in a similar situation, when you get to the 4-4 you can feel as if you have thrown it away and you can worry about what’s going to happen.
“But our players were very intent on regaining the initiative and we withstood the pressure that came after that. And even before Charlton went down to 10 men, I felt as if we would have chances late in the game and we did, but we weren’t able to find that killer moment late in the game that we had in the first half.
“People didn’t think we would score any goals this season but we look like one of the most dangerous attacking teams I've seen in the league. The lads have been working incessantly on that and, for us, it’s about finding that consistency and replicating these performance at home, which we did on Saturday in the second half.”
Watch BBM’s post-match interview in full on iFollow.