“It’s a difficult result to take” – Dale boss Barry-Murphy on “heartbreak” of Pigott’s late leveller for Dons

BY KAI BENNETT

Brian Barry-Murphy reckoned Rochdale deserved all three points and that AFC Wimbledon’s last-minute equaliser was “heartbreaking”.

The visitors looked to be heading for all three points on Tuesday night before Joe Pigott scored a 97th-minute leveller.

Barry-Murphy said: “It’s a very difficult result to take.

“We didn’t deserve that at the end because of the way we played. We played really well. We were very daring and very attacking and created a lot of chances. Obviously we didn’t score enough goals to win the game, but the players did everything they could.

“When you have a situation like tonight, which we have had a couple of times this season, it’s really heartbreaking for the players because of how much they put into the game.

“We felt that we could come here, really attack and score goals – which we did. We had really good control, we limited them to set-pieces and only a few moments in the box.

“They’re capable of scoring goals, with the sheer amount of pressure they created and we couldn’t keep them out enough tonight.

“The players did everything we had planned for, we were good, we grew into the game. Our possession in the first half was a little down on what we are used to but we got in behind the Wimbledon backline for fun.

“We practiced a lot, and we knew we could penetrate that backline and really expose them. Once we had exposed them, we looked really dangerous and created a lot of chances.

“Tonight we scored three goals, I felt as if we could have scored more but the lads implemented the gameplan really well.”