Goal was trademark of Dale’s attacking
ONE of the positives to emerge from the FA Cup first round defeat against Stockport County was the make-up of Dale’s goal, which manager Brian Barry-Murphy described as ‘trademark’.
Alex Newby’s fine work on the right, twisting and turning the fullback inside out before delivering a pinpoint cross to the back post, was matched by a ferocious header from Matt Lund, the midfielder maintaining his freescoring run of form.
“Matty Lund’s goal from Alex Newby’s cross was very distinctive, almost a trademark and I thought that was trend a throughout the game – we created some good crossing opportunities and equally in the second half we had some good opportunities to score,” said BBM.
“But a combination of us not quite getting the final finish or the goalkeeper making two great saves meant that we couldn’t score (a second).
“I thought our attacking play against a packed defence was pretty patient and pretty good and I thought we got the balance right between keeping possession and penetrating the backline quite good, so overall no complaints from me.
“We never want to lose but our lads gave absolutely everything and there will be days where we give absolutely everything but just don’t score the goals to win the game.
“There are parts of our defending that we are constantly working on but we were working on them in exactly the same manner after the wins at Burton and Shrewsbury as we will be doing this week. It’s just a constant process that we go through to try and make that side of our game more proficient.
“But as I say, that’s a constant process, not a reactive one to not getting the result we wanted against Stockport.