Manager Robbie Stockdale on Dale’s Sky Bet League Two fixture against Crawley Town…
“They [Crawley] are a very organised, very structured team,” said the Gaffer.
“We’ve watched a lot of them, we know where their threats are and we think we can impose ourselves on the game.
“We’re really looking for a high energy performance. We need to get back to winning ways and it’s the next opportunity to do that. I reiterate - we need to be at our best in every game, there’s nobody going to give us it.
“We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves and there’s a determination throughout the staff and players, and hopefully the fans, that this weekend we get back to that winning momentum.”
He continued: “If you lose games, you’re losing them for a reason. We’ve had mixed performances, but in some games we’ve played well and created lots of chances, but unfortunately at this moment in time, it’s just not falling for us or we’re not being as clinical as we were in the previous games. We know that needs to improve, but we’re working hard on that and the players know where we need to get better.”
And the Gaffer says the players who played in Tuesday night’s game against Port Vale have given him food for thought in terms of team selection for the weekend.
“The first half was tough. To have any sort of quality in those kinds of conditions when you’re coming up against what was like a monsoon in our faces, I was pleased with their attitude.
“I thought in the second half we played better and we created some good openings but that’s what we asked of the players and they did that. They’ve given me certainly food for thought.
“We had a couple of tired bodies this morning [Thursday] so we’ll reassess them tomorrow. We had quite a few who played 90 minutes for the first time, so they’re having an active recovery day today. We’ll pick up again tomorrow and, apart from Josh [Andrews], hopefully we’ll have everybody available.”
Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel.