Jim McNulty praised the bravery of his Rochdale side after they came from behind to beat Walsall 4-2 at the Crown Oil Arena.
Bottom-of-the-table Dale fell behind to a Jamille Matt strike but goals in quick succession before half-time from Ian Henderson and Danny Lloyd turned the game around.
Walsall equalised seven minutes into the second period through Tom Knowles but Max Taylor and Ethan Brierley scored to boost Dale’s survival hopes.
Though Rochdale remain bottom of League Two, they have closed the gap to safety to six points having made it back to back wins in McNulty’s first two games in charge since taking over from Jim Bentley.
“It was a great win, an exciting game with some great football from our team that I was really pleased with,” said interim boss McNulty.
“There were some disappointments to ride out along the way, obviously going 1-0 down – that’s tough in our situation, to go 1-0 down and be brave enough to come back and play some of the football we’ve played. That was really pleasing to see against a good side with some big hitters among them, notably their two strikers.
“We always knew the game would provide difficulties but personally I always felt we could have real moments in the game where we could show our quality and we did.
“After going behind it took real bravery and commitment to the gameplan. To be not affected by the first punch in the game was very important. We reacted really well, we were very brave and to come back and draw, let alone win, is a real positive.”
Walsall manager Mike Flynn was deeply disappointed with the performance of the match officials.
At 2-2, Matt had an effort ruled out and Dale’s fourth goal was controversial as Brierley’s lobbed effort from just inside the Walsall half appeared to have been stopped by Saddlers goalkeeper Owen Evans but assistant referee Simon Clayton signalled the ball had crossed the line.
Flynn said: “It’s deeply frustrating to lose to the side bottom of the division but I have to take the positives out of it and I thought we scored three legitimate goals and we’ve been let down by some appalling officiating.
“Goals change games and instead of going 3-2 up we go 3-2 down and it’s just not good enough.
“The linesman has guessed the ball went over the line for Rochdale’s fourth goal.
“For their first goal their striker has thrown Brandon Comley to the floor and he’s the one who taps it in – the officials saw nothing there.
“Then bizarrely, the referee sees something that had no impact on our play to disallow our third goal. When your luck’s out, it’s really out and ours is out at the minute.”
