Ian Watson lauds Rochdale ‘courage’ after battling win at Fleetwood

Rochdale manager Ian Watson believes his side showed their mettle in the 2-1 win at Fleetwood.

Goals from Dajaune Brown and Aden Flint put Dale 2-0 up early on but they were forced into sterling rearguard action in the second half, especially after Tobi Adebayo-Rowling saw a second yellow card 21 minutes from time, with Mark Helm having reduced the deficit.

Watson, who had come under fire during Dale’s slow start to the season, said: “That’s what we want to look like all the time.

“I’m just really pleased we get to see what we’re actually working on, what we’re trying to look like, and how brave the boys were with the ball, how much courage they played with.

“When they do that, it’s really hard for the opposition. I felt the first 20 was really pleasing, then I think we maybe played the scoreboard a little bit after that and self-preservation mode kicked in a little bit.

“We got to half-time and I thought we regrouped, and started the second half really well. There’s so much I love about today’s performance, not just with the ball, but everything without the ball, and the heart and desire the boys showed as well.

“I understand where the frustration comes from but my responsibility is to not listen to any noise, just focus and back myself as a coach, as a human as well. My mentality is strong and I believe in myself. But how amazing were the fans as well, they got us over the line.”

Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor cut a frustrated figure having seen his side start slowly and then fail to break Dale down for an equaliser.

He said: “We can’t start games like that, we’ve probably been sloppy in the last three starts, if I’m honest. We can’t gift them what we’ve gifted them, that’s the basics I’m talking about.

“In the last 65 minutes we were obviously on top, and we had enough chances, we had enough pressure on the ball and enough possession of the ball to create better quality chances than we did, so I think we should have scored two or three.

“But you can’t start a game like that – if you do you have a mountain to climb and we didn’t climb it.

“It’s difficult, we’ve had illnesses and injuries hit us in the last 48 hours, but I still demand that the first 20 minutes is better than that, doing the basics right. I was OK with 65 minutes of that performance but absolutely raging with 25 minutes of it.

“We lacked a little bit of intensity. We should have scored more but the red card actually helped them a little bit, they just batted down and cleared big so every credit to them, they were really good for the first 25 then they defended their box well throughout the 90 minutes.”