John Sheridan accepts criticism as Swindon lose again at bottom side Rochdale

Posted Wednesday, April 14, 2021 by PA

John Sheridan said he and his Swindon team deserve all the criticism that comes their way following the 2-1 defeat against fellow League One strugglers Rochdale.

The manager was bitterly disappointed with his side’s performance against bottom-of-the-table Dale and admitted it was not good enough.

Goals from Jimmy Keohane and Conor Grant proved enough for the hosts to claim their first home win in six months, Jordan Garrick’s late strike coming too late for the Robins.

“I’m not going to try to be clever with my answers. I expect people to throw things at me and I fully warrant it and we do as a team, we are not performing, not getting results,” said Sheridan, whose side are second bottom, one point above Dale.

“We have to take it on the chin and stand up and be tall because it’s not good enough, nowhere near.

“We had opportunities in the game where I felt if we did get at them and took care of the ball in key areas we should have caused them more problems.

“If we’d have believed in ourselves more, I thought we’d have gone on to win the game. But they were more calm in possession, we were rushing and rushing. We are where we are and we deserve to be where we are.”

Keohane curled Dale ahead with a 12th-minute effort and the home side were denied a second when Camps saved efforts from Ollie Rathbone and Jake Beesley.

Dale stopper Jay Lynch denied Jack Payne in a frantic first half and Grant tapped in the home side’s second in the 64th minute after Camps had saved Beesley’s shot.

They had chances to make it three – Aaron Morley saw a firm drive deflected wide by Jonathan Grounds, Keohane side-footed over the bar and Gabriel Osho saw a low shot saved by Camps following a free-kick.

Dale looked comfortable until Garrick converted Payne’s cross in the 87th minute but they saw the game out for their first three-point return on home soil since early October.

“It’s great for our supporters that they finally have a win that keeps us in a really interesting position,” said Dale chief Brian Barry-Murphy.

“The players have had a lot of setbacks at home this season so to change that was great for the players emotionally and I felt we played at a high level. We still want more but there were clear signs and expressions of skill, when you see the likes of Stephen Dooley playing the way he did, the rest of the team fed off that.

“We created good chances – we still had significant players missing from the top end of the field but we felt we got good players forward from midfield and created a host of clear cut chances. We kept Swindon at bay for pretty much the entire game.”