Jim Bentley praised the character shown by the players in Saturday’s 4-4 draw with Swindon Town, but was disappointed not to take all three points.
Dale came from 2-0 down to take a 3-2 lead, before falling behind again and earning a point in stoppage time.
“It was one of them mad games but we’re obviously disappointed,” said Bentley.
“We need wins and a point isn’t good enough. There are loads of positives - scoring four at home, great. And there are loads of negatives - conceding four at home against the same player.
“But I have to say that Charlie Austin was absolutely outstanding. You can see why he has played in the Premier League and the Championship and so fair play, he’s playing for his home town club and he’s doing the business for them.
“He has some nice words at the end - a touch of class, nice fella, conducted himself right on the pitch and got his four goals and that’s the difference between us probably not winning the game and drawing it, so fair play to him.
“But with regards to ourselves, we started poorly. We made three errors on missing the ball in critical areas that have cost goals. We haven’t defend well at key times and have given Charlie Austin too much space in the box.
“We spoke about it before the game. Myself and Chaddy [Nick Chadwick, Assistant Manager] went to watch them on Tuesday and he was on the bench, and we thought he’d come straight back in today. Four goals in nine or ten games before today, so we thought he’d come in and we discussed the importance of defending your box, getting tight and not giving him the areas but we haven’t defended well enough.
“It’s disappointing, and as I say, we have made a couple of critical errors, missed kicks on three occasions that have cost us, but it takes us to bang one in from 25-yards into the top corner and a nice move and counter-attack with Ibbi [Abraham Odoh] who I am really pleased for that he’s got his goal.
“He’s playing well, he’s affecting the game, he’s creating opportunities and I’m pleased that he’s got a goal today. Hendo [Ian Henderson] coming on there and scoring a goal from a corner after a good delivery from Liam Kelly.
“We’ve had to work hard and we’ve made other opportunities as well and we could have scored more than we did. It could have been another three points last week [against Grimsby] and in my opinion looking over the game it should have been. Looking at the game today, their third game in a week, we’ve applied ourselves. We didn’t start particularly well but what the lads have shown is plenty of character.
“At 2-0 I can sense, and it’s understandable given the position that we’re in, there’s a lot of negativity when you’re 2-0 down at home early one and it could have been easy to go under against a team like that, because they are a very good possession based footballing side and they are well-drilled, well-coached, but thankfully we asked questions of them and we scored a couple of goals and got ourselves back on level terms.
“We’ve had a goal disallowed so I’ll have to have a look at that. There are so many talking points within the game.”
Watch the full interview with Bentley on our official YouTube channel below.