PHIL Male is ‘proud’ of his Tividale players following yesterday’s 4-2 victory over Belper Town at The Beeches.

Dale responded to last week’s defeat at Lincoln United with an excellent attacking performance. Mark Danks, Chris Rabone, Chris Sterling and substitute Demetri Brown were all on target for the Submariners.

And Male insists that Tivi have now set the standard ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Kidsgrove Athletic (KO 19:45).

“I thought the lads were terrific. They showed us the response we were looking for,” said the 36-year-old.

“We started brightly, had one or two opportunities and went ahead through Danksy. It was a great decision by the linesman on the far side, as it all happened very quickly.

“Rabone had a chance to make it 2-0 and before we knew it, it was 1-1. But the lads responded yet again and Chris put his second chance away extremely well. Sterling and Brown’s goals were excellent, too, particularly Demetri’s.

“He probably should have taken it into the corner, mind!”

Male was also impressed with debutant Alex Fletcher, who joined Dale in midweek from AFC Telford United.

“I thought Alex was excellent. We’ve been looking for a ball playing midfielder for a few weeks and I’m delighted to have him on board.

“He’s a little short on match fitness at the moment but that will come in time. He’s always showing for the ball and he’s very good technically.”

Danks was sent off with 20 minutes to play for a second bookable offence, and Thorpe accepts it was the correct decision by the referee.

“I have no complaints with the sending off. When the ball is played long like that, the natural thing to do is to try and get something on it, but as he’d already been booked in the first half, the referee had no choice in this instance.”

Dale are now preparing for Wednesday’s trip to Staffordshire and Male hopes consistency can be found in the coming weeks and months.

“The game is all about confidence, always has been, and always will be. That will never change. Kidsgrove are a good side, and it’s going to be a tough game. But this victory should give us some belief.

“We have proved we can score goals, create chances and we need that to be a regular occurrence moving forward. We have some excellent attacking players. We are still giving soft goals away but we are working on that.”