Jimmy McNulty says that it was important to protect his players in last night's game as he would have been devastated if Dale had lost any more players to injury as a result of the FA Trophy tie against Gateshead.
Dale exited the FA Trophy yesterday following a 5-1 defeat at home against Gateshead.
Head Coach Jimmy McNulty says that his squad were always going to struggle to compete in multiple competitions.
"Tonight showed how we certainly can’t compete in more than one competition from a squad perspective," said McNulty.
"I feel like we have just about enough to compete in the league.
"Looking at the two sides tonight, and I had a good chat with their manager before the game, we’re in very different situations. They’re three years deep into the project they’re in. They have a 25-man squad there, who have real depth and understanding. When guys leave the team, and others come in, it looks very much the same.
"In moments tonight, you could certainly see that if we rest a couple of the main players like we need to and we try and move things around a little bit, I think against the best teams in our league we can get exposed. Unfortunately, tonight that was shown."
Bradley Kelly made his first professional start for Dale in last night’s game, with Academy players Luke Mann and Isaac Burgess both coming onto the pitch to make their first-team debuts. Academy midfielder Corey Edwards was also named on the bench.
“I thought that it was important to put those guys on the bench tonight," commented the Dale Head Coach.
"Without them, we would have had a bench of four, with one of them being a goalkeeper: leaving us with three outfield options, which is truthfully too short, certainly to compete in two trophies
“I never thought that we could go deep in anything other than the league. It was critical that we protected the players tonight. We didn’t protect as many as I would have liked to if I’m being honest. I still had to expose some.
“I would have been devasted here tonight if we’d have lost a couple more players in the FA Trophy because I know that it could decimate us in the league.”
Watch the full interview with McNulty below via our official YouTube channel.