Rochdale manager Steve Parkin spoke exclusively to Leaguemanagers.com after his side nearly managed to stage an amazing comeback against fellow play-off hopefuls Hull City at Boothferry Park on Tuesday night.
Parkin's side are in 10th position in Division Three and victory against Brian Little's team would have taken The Dale ahead of The Tigers in the race for a play-off spot.
However, two first-half goals and a second-half penalty from the home side seemed to have killed off the visitors' challenge before two late Rochdale goals gave Steve Parkin renewed hope of getting a result.
Hull held on for the last quarter of an hour to take the three points though and Parkin admitted his players had given themselves a near impossible task by conceding three goals before their fight back.
"We're disappointed with the goals we conceded, " he said
"We were well aware that we were playing against a team with quite a lot size and big Kevin Francis up front. So it's disappointing that we've given a daft free-kick away, a penalty from that, and also the other goals have come from set plays, it was unacceptable defending.
"In the first half - against the wind - we were concerned with how many crosses they may get in. We thought if we played 5 across the middle of the park then hopefully they'd be putting the crosses in from very deep.
"In the 2nd half we put Clive Platt on up front with the wind to try to take the game to them. If we'd come in at half-time 1-0 down we'd have been delighted and had a right go at them but 2-0 was asking a bit much."
Parkin outlined some of the problems a team faces when playing in a strong wind as there was on Tuesday night in Hull:
"We had a young YT keeper playing only his third game and good crosses can be difficult to judge at the best of times and if they are in a strong wind they are even more difficult to judge, that's one problem.
"Also, teams can find, as we did, that you can get a good head of steam and a good momentum going and that's difficult to break up."
The manager was able to take some good points from the game despite the result, especially from his side's second-half display.
"It's difficult to come away looking positive after you've lost 3-2 but there was a lot of positives to come out of the game.
"I thought we played with more passion in the second-half than we've done for a while, we created chances against a team that's not conceded many goals. We must take that into the game on Saturday against Lincoln."
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