Jim Bentley takes charge of his first Dale home match on Tuesday night, as we welcome Leyton Orient to the Crown Oil Arena.
The gaffer has been impressed by what he has seen from his players so far, after scoring six goals in his first two games in charge.
He hopes that positivity can now continue in front of the Dale fans.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Bentley.
“My first two games have been away from home, and we had a Central League Cup fixture as well, which myself and Chaddy [Nick Chadwick, Assistant Manager] took over in Lincoln last Tuesday.
“So, it will be nice to get home in front of our own fans and try to generate positivity. We’ve had a decent enough start with regards to performances and scoring six goals in two games.
“We won the Central League Cup fixture which we took seriously. It’s mine and Chaddy’s opportunity to get eyes on players that haven’t played as many minutes as they would have liked. That was a good exercise for us.
“There has been a bit of positivity so now being at home for our first game, in front of the home fans, hopefully we can give them something to cheer about.
“It’s been a hectic two weeks. We probably haven’t had as much time on the training ground as we would have liked. We have had the last couple of days, which we need to try and put our thoughts and methods into practice.
“I’ve mentioned before about overloading [the players] with information – we need to drip-feed it to get us better and up the table, where we all want to be. It’s been enjoyable.
“The lads have been, probably 95% of the time, flat out and very, very good in training. We’ve been pretty impressed.
“Now, we come into two tough games, against Leyton Orient and Northampton Town, two of the fancied sides. We’ve got to make sure that we embrace the challenge and have a right good go.”
Orient sit top of the Sky Bet League Two table, having won six and drawn one of their opening seven games.
“We’re under no illusions it will be a tough game but it’s one that we’re really looking forward to.
“They’re a good side and Richie is a good manager. He’s been around the level for a few years and got a promotion with Swindon Town.
“They try to play the game the right way, they play with freedom and confidence. They’ve got key players, a couple that I’ve seen over the years that I’ve liked and impressed me. They’re scoring goals so we know we’ll have to be at our best defensively.
“We’ve studied them over the last couple of days, myself, Nick and the staff. We’ve done some work on the training ground, putting certain things in place to try and improve us. We’ve got goals in the last two games so hopefully we can have more of that on Tuesday and give the crowd something to cheer.”