Rochdale assistant manager Chris Beech wants his side to back up Saturday’s FA Cup with a win in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Spotland against Morecambe tomorrow night.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing bagged a hat-trick in Dale’s 3-1 over Swindon Town to keep hopes alive of making the fourth round of the FA Cup for the third successive season.
Beech praised the side’s display but was keen to ensure they build on the display over the next week.
“We’ve got a big week this week and we’ve started the week off great,” he said.
“I don’t think the fans quite got what we were trying to achieve, which was to ultimately win the game.
“The fans have been used to this fast flowing, free-flowing, high energy game – the lads did do that but it has to start from a start point and if you go gung-ho you can get too wide and get spread out.
“We were doing exactly what we wanted, even although in the first 15 or 20 minutes they probably had possession.
“It was centre-half to centre-half without any entries into our box, though, and on the turnover we did, so we were quite happy with that.
“Overall, we’re really pleased that we got through the tie.”
Beech also had a word for Dale’s star man on Saturday.
“He’s training harder and he has been committed to the programme that we gave him when we met him.
“I’m really pleased for him because he deserved it. He played really well – he’s a threat and a running threat, and what has been good about him in the last couple of weeks is that he is prepared to get back and help out as well.
“He’s got a good mixture in his game at the moment and he’s backed it up with goals. Overall, he deserves his Man of the Match.”
Mendez-Laing will be hoping to add to his goal tally for the season tomorrow night against a Morecambe side that Dale have beaten in their last two meetings.
Rochdale will be hoping to better their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy performance of last season when they succumbed to a 1-0 home defeat to Walsall at this stage of the competition.
Dale will be without young midfielder Callum Camps who was stretchered off on Saturday and is awaiting scan results, while French forward John-Christophe Ayina could be in line to make his debut.
Image courtesy of Official Rochdale via YouTube, with thanks.
