Dickov praise for performance

Paul Dickov.

PAUL Dickov backed his players to the hilt following the derby loss at Boundary Park.

A double strike from former frontman Chris O’Grady did for Athletic in a game in which the home side had the better of the overall play.

Rochdale had defender Scott Wiseman see red for an innocuous challenge on Cedric Evina and Dean Furman set up a grandstand finish with a volley three minutes from the end of normal time.

Despite laying siege to the Dale goal, the home side could not force an equaliser to leave the team with back-to-back npower League One defeats for the first time this season.

Dickov was not impressed by referee Anthony Taylor, who awarded a spot-kick against Reuben Hazell, but feels that similar displays from his players in the future will yield positive results.

“I am disappointed (with the goals that were conceded), but I am delighted with the boys as well,” said the Athletic boss

(pictured below), after a defeat which brought about the end of the club’s unbeaten home league record.

“If they keep on playing like that up to the end of the season — having a go and giving everything they have got — then we won’t be far away.

“We were excellent from start to finish. I am not too sure about the penalty, with regard to what the fourth official was saying to me.

“In other challenges where people were going for the ball, I was told the referee was trying to let the game flow.

“I said to the fourth official after 12 minutes when Oumare (Tounkara) was pushed over after an elbow to the back of his head, ‘I hope he is going to be consistent with that and that he doesn’t make a stupid decision for either team that will cost them the game’.

“It is a sad state of affairs when both myself and Keith Hill, plus the fans and everyone else, are talking about a so-called Premier League referee.

“We should be talking about an entertaining derby game.

“Both teams gave everything they had and I felt we were the better team from start to finish.

“Up until the penalty kick I don’t think they had a shot at goal.

“So I am absolutely delighted with my boys and I told them afterwards to get their heads up.

“They are disappointed. If they give me everything they have got and play the way we did then we will be up there.

“We are full of character right through the football club and I will back my boys all the way.

“We played good football and had lots and lots of shots. The ball just didn’t fall for us.

“I will look at it again and might change my mind. But I felt we were the better team by far in a game that was spoiled by the referee.”

Even Wiseman’s dismissal was contested by Dickov, who pointed to the unusual reaction to it from Athletic fans.

“It was ridiculous,” said Dickov of the decision. “When an opposition player has been sent off in a derby match and the home fans are singing to the referee ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’, for me that summed his performance up.”