An Ivan Toney hat-trick helped condemn Rochdale to a heavy 6-0 defeat at London Road on Saturday as Peterborough enjoyed their biggest league win in eight years.
In a day to forget for the Rochdale defenders and goalkeeper Robert Sanchez in particular, a combination of defensive mistakes and slick Posh football saw the promotion favourites and big summer spenders post a statement of intent for the season ahead.
It was only Dale’s second defeat for the season, but it starkly illustrated the gap in League One between well-funded clubs with Championship aspirations and the rest of the League. Boss Brain Barry-Murphy took responsibility for the defeat and promised the players would come out fighting when managerless Lincoln City visit Spotland on Tuesday night.
Speaking to the club’s official website after the match he said: ‘Our lads are very professional and very dedicated. They’ll put that game behind them. We’ll learn from the game hugely, myself included. I take huge responsibility myself for parts of the game that I got wrong.’
‘I think the players will come out of it fine and I think we’ll be very professional and aggressive in the way we approach Tuesday’s game.’
You would expect social media to be in meltdown after such a heavy defeat, but to their credit, Rochdale fans maintained the same sense of perspective and philosophical view as their manager when they took to Twitter to react to the result.
Indeed, They will gain hope form the fact some Peterborough fans responded with the view that Rochdale were unlucky and one of the better side they had seen so far this season.
Here is a selection of responses to the result on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Danthedalefan/status/1172901941250277377?s=20
https://twitter.com/Darth_Moomin/status/1172903430802874370?s=20
https://twitter.com/MattyKirkham3/status/1172903600617644034?s=20
https://twitter.com/DANPUFC1988/status/1172916721029656579?s=20
https://twitter.com/ric0370/status/1172906708244545538?s=20
https://twitter.com/d_harris1234/status/1172902330443976704?s=20
https://twitter.com/mattbdale/status/1172912382294839296?s=20
https://twitter.com/jeffslough8/status/1172902341105917952?s=20
https://twitter.com/jsan7216/status/1173042721570865152?s=20
