Manager Brian Barry-Murphy reflects on Dale’s dramatic 3-3 draw with Peterborough United at the Crown Oil Arena…
“I think it’s symbolic of this season - a real rollercoaster in terms of the score line,” said BBM in his post-match interview.
“I thought we weren’t quite as good in the first half as we were last week [at Lincoln]. We started the game fine but the goal rocked us and we didn’t react to it as well as I would have hoped.
“But in the second half I thought we were pretty much the dominant force in the game and once we drew level, if you could hear the lads on the pitch, it was very clear that they were keen to go after that winner. To see that mentality and that purpose was brilliant for us.
“For me, it’s important to remind the lads of how well they did overall in the game and to not just remember those last moments.
“But I think we can do better. I think we have to want more because certain parts of the first half were not up the standards that we set.”
Jake Beesley returned from a long-injury lay-off to start the game, replacing Ryan McLaughlin who missed out due to injury, while Stephen Humphrys was forced off in the second half.
“We looked very strong. Physically we’re in a good place but the area of concern for us is that we can’t seem to keep everybody fit. Pre-game I was going to come on here and say what a position of strength we’re in and how many players we’re getting back and that we’re only worrying about Matthew Lund and Jimmy Ryan, but now Stephen Humphrys is struggling again off the back of that game which is a constant trend of the season, so I think it’s important to focus on the lads that are fit. They’re in great condition and looked really strong at the end of the game as we pushed and pushed for that winner.”
Beesley marked his return to the side, his first appearance in two months since damaging his metatarsal away at Doncaster Rovers in January, with a goal, as he brought Dale level with three minutes of the match remaining.
“If it was anybody else [other than Jake], they wouldn’t have started. Ryan McLaughlin was going to start the game but had a slight niggle in training yesterday, something he struggles with quite a lot, so we didn’t want to take any chances there.
“As such, when it’s Jake, you think he’s capable of producing extraordinary numbers on fitness data, so I think he’s the one player that you can throw back in. In line with the rest of the team, he probably found it difficult in the first half but he really grew into it in the second half and topped off a very good performance with a great goal.”
And the Boss confirmed that Humphrys had to go off with a hamstring problem.
“His hamstring was sore. He had an issue at Lincoln last week and he managed to get through, but he felt as if he wasn’t able to continue today so we had to take him off, as much as we wanted to leave him on the pitch.”
Watch BBM's post-match interview in full on iFollow Dale.