07 November 2021

Magpies boss Ian Burchnall ‘looking forward to doing it again’ after Dale draw

07 November 2021

Notts County boss Ian Burchnall is relishing another opportunity to take on opponents from a higher division after his National League side drew 1-1 at Rochdale to earn an FA Cup replay.

The Magpies overturned a one-goal deficit at the break with a strong second-half showing and had chances to snatch the win against their League Two hosts.

Corey O’Keeffe had fired Dale into the box seat with the opening goal after 45 minutes but Kyle Wootton headed the equaliser in the 61st minute.

Though home side Rochdale finished in the ascendency, no-one could deny County were good value for a replay at the very least.

Burchnall said: “I feel a little disappointed we didn’t kick on after we scored the equaliser – we had a 15-minute period after scoring where I felt we were really on top.

“The last 10 minutes saw chances both ways but I thought it was a really balanced game, two teams who want to play.

“I really enjoyed the game, I enjoyed what we did and I thought they posed us some problems that we don’t face every week, which was great. I’m looking forward to doing it again.

“They locked on and pressed us really high but we never gave up and we played some really nice stuff, it was a great performance from us.

“We responded well to going a goal down, came out in the second half and really attacked the game. The replay will be a difficult game. We’ve both learned something about each other now so we’ll take that into the replay at Meadow Lane and go again.”

O’Keeffe had fired a volley into the side-netting and been denied by Anthony Patterson during the first half before finally finding the target on the stroke of half-time, collecting Aaron Morley’s corner and coolly finding the top corner of the net.

Dale started the second half well, Jake Beesley denied by Patterson as they pushed for a second.

But the Magpies grew in confidence and went close through Aaron Nemane’s deflected shot. From the resulting corner delivery by Callum Roberts, striker Wootton got up above Jay Lynch to nod home.

County then had a period of dominance but could not press home their advantage, while Dale finished with a period of pressure of their own.

“It was a tough afternoon against a good team,” said Dale boss Robbie Stockdale.

“Some people may have expected us to roll them over just because they are in a division below, but they have loads of talent in the team, lots of players that Football League clubs would welcome. So it was a difficult afternoon, we didn’t play to our best but credit to Notts County for stopping us doing that.

“We probably created the better chances, Jake had a good opportunity which the keeper has saved – so on the balance of play it was probably a fair result, but we could have won it.”

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