Jim Bentley hopes Tuesday’s Papa John’s Trophy win can give Dale confidence and momentum moving forward in the league.
Dale travel to Colchester United on Saturday in search of a first league win of the season.
“We go there believing we can get something from the game,” said the Dale boss.
“They’ve got a new management team in place, albeit I don’t think it’s their permanent management team, but I’m sure the players will have a reaction to that.
“They’ll be looking at us, we’ll be looking at them, thinking it’s a winnable game. Hopefully we can get the three points and get our league campaign up and running.”
Dale were beaten 3-0 at Northampton Town last weekend, but followed it with a 1-0 win over Liverpool Under-21s on Tuesday.
“We wanted to bounce back. It gave players who maybe haven’t been playing an opportunity.
“We’ve got a couple of injuries at the club which I’ve inherited, which is part and parcel of the game. We’ve picked up one or two more from Saturday’s game, so there were some enforced changes on Tuesday but certainly one or two that we wanted to take a look at as well.
“It was an opportunity for them to get into the team this Saturday. The win keeps us alive in that competition but also give us confidence and momentum moving forward.”
Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, the gaffer was asked what is needed to turn Dale’s league fortunes around.
“We want to crank up the tempo of training sessions and try to get them sharper, get them fitter. It’s trying to identify, sooner rather than later, the areas we can improve in the short-term.
“A lot of the stuff on a Saturday or Tuesday night comes from what you do in your working week. We’ve seen certain things we want to improve on so we’re implementing them at the minute.
“It’s important we create a happy, good working environment where people are looking forward to coming in and give their absolute all.
“The non-negotiable, first and foremost, is that when they do turn up to training every day, they empty the tank and they’ve got to do exactly the same in the match.
“There’s no magic wand in football or in life. It might take longer in certain areas than other, but we have identified certain areas and the staff are discussing those things on an hourly basis, just to see where we can get the most out of every individual.
“With every individual there’s also the team as well, so that’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”