Barry-Murphy has ‘something to build on’ following solid draw

New Rochdale boss Brian Barry-Murphy hailed his side’s “courage” and “resilience” after a hard-fought goalless draw with fellow League One strugglers Oxford.

It is four points in two games for Barry-Murphy after taking over in the wake of the dismissal of Keith Hill, following up Saturday’s win over Shrewsbury with what he described as “a positive point” against Karl Robinson’s men.

“I think it was a good point in difficult weather conditions for both teams,” he said.

“The type of football we wanted to play was difficult to enforce on that pitch, especially in the first half.

“But I think the core elements of what we want to achieve were there – we showed amazing commitment to defend the goal and I thought our courage to attack was good.

“Our resilience in defending set-pieces was exceptional against a team who are known to be exceptional at attacking corners.”

Barry-Murphy believes the result was “a big step forward and something that we can build on”.

He added: “Our players had become internally a little obsessed with keeping a clean sheet because it hadn’t happened for so long.

“I have tried to take that away from the players and just asked them to defend as well as they can for as long as they can and that leads to the clean sheet.”

Although the result keeps both teams in the relegation zone, Robinson was pleased with several aspects of the performance.

“We were okay tonight, against a team with a new manager, full of resurgence on the back of a good win against Shrewsbury at the weekend,” he said.

“We just have to make sure we capitalise on a good away point when we go back home now and take all three points against Bradford.

“It’s a big game but they are all big games now. There are nine to go and no one game is bigger than another.

“Even if we take the points against Bradford, the next game is just as big and we have to stick together because there is no time now.

“Yes we are building behind the scenes for next season and for pre-season, players I am speaking to and so on and so forth but the here and now is what’s important.

“We are getting better as a football club but we are not getting the results we need on the pitch.”