Brian Barry-Murphy hails ‘amazing turnaround’ as Rochdale keep fighting

Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2021 by PA

Brian Barry-Murphy hailed his Rochdale side after a 1-0 win against Blackpool made it three victories in a week in their survival fight.

Dale went six months without a home win but made it three on the bounce as Ollie Rathbone struck midway through the second half to hand them a deserved result.

They remain five points adrift of safety but Barry-Murphy insists the last three games have revived belief.

“It’s been an amazing turnaround in form and to get the rewards we feel we deserve is testament to the hard work the lads are putting in,” he said.

“We’d been playing really well over the period of time and we were convinced if we kept up those performance levels, our home form would turn. Thankfully that’s been proven and it gives us great belief for the rest of the season.

“We feel we can do something really special.

“For large parts of the season we felt we were a bit of a laughing stock in the division but we always felt we were on the end of some unusual scorelines. The lads have put in some relentless work and we have got a lot of our defensive players back fit and that was evident.”

Blackpool struggled to get out of the traps as Rochdale dominated the opening 20 minutes, going close through Aaron Morley’s teasing delivery in the opening stages.

Jimmy Keohane and Conor Grant both saw shots blocked and it was the early stages of the second half before Blackpool threatened, Ellis Simms forcing a good save out of Jay Lynch.

Dale edged ahead in the 66th minute when Rathbone cut in from the left and curled a fine finish beyond the dive of Chris Maxwell.

The visitors applied late pressure without ever really testing Lynch as Dale held on for victory.

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley said in spite of the defeat, a play-off finish is still within reach.

“It’s still in our hands, we control our own destiny at the minute,” he said. “But we will have to produce better in the final third than we did against Rochdale.

“We’re not going to rip up what we’ve been doing and make wholesale changes – although I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered that anyway because of the schedule we have, but it won’t be because people have played badly.

“I don’t think it was a case of a game too far. We didn’t start with our usual intensity in the first half but we were absolutely dominant in the second half, they didn’t get near our goal.

“They had one fantastic shot – poor from our point of view – but we were on the front foot, pressing well and our approach play was good. We just missed that final little bit. I didn’t feel we were missing anything from an intensity point of view.”