BRIAN BARRY-MURPHY expressed his frustration after his Rochdale side conceded a 96th-minute equaliser amid a 3-3 draw against fellow relegation battlers AFC Wimbledon last night.

The result could prove costly, as it leaves his team four points from safety in League One with two games to play.

The Cork native’s squad has a strong Irish influence, with Eoghan O’Connell, Conor Shaughnessy, Jimmy Keohane, Jimmy Ryan, Gavin Bazunu, Conor Grant and Paul McShane all within their ranks.

“It’s very [difficult for everyone to take],” Barry-Murphy said, as reported by the official club website.

“I didn’t feel as if we deserved that at the end, but purely because of the way we played. I thought we played really well — I thought we were very daring and very attacking in the way we played the game.

“We created a lot of chances — we obviously didn’t score enough goals to win the game tonight, but I think the players on behalf of everybody at the club did absolutely everything that we want.”

The son of GAA legend Jimmy Barry-Murphy also lamented the fact that it was not the first time his side endured late heartbreak.

“When you have a situation like that [conceding deep in stoppage time], like we’ve had a couple of times this season, it’s really heartbreaking for the players because of how much they’ve put into the game.

“We felt as if we could come here and be really attacking and score goals, and we did. I felt as if we had the opposition under really good control and restricted them to set pieces and a few moments in the box, but they are capable of scoring goals with the sheer volume of pressure that they created and we just couldn’t keep them out enough tonight.”

Despite relegation looking increasingly likely, Barry-Murphy refused to blame his players for their unenviable position.

“The players did everything that we planned for. I thought we were good and I thought we grew into the game. I thought our possession in the first half was a little bit down to what we’re used to, but we got in behind the Wimbledon backline for fun.

“We practised a lot on how we could penetrate that backline and really expose them, and once we exposed them we looked really dangerous and we looked like we could create a lot of chances.

“We scored three goals and I felt as if we could score more. The lads have implemented the game plan really, really well, it’s just very disappointing that we couldn’t see out the victory but that can happen.”