Hill – Difficult Start But Just Deserts

Manager Keith Hill feels we got what we deserved when we faced Crawley Town last weekend and came away with a fantastic four nil victory.

Speaking to the Official Site Hill said that he knows there is a lot of ‘honesty’ about the team and the way we play and it’s obviously that we have quite a few talented players, but it has been a difficult start to League One life and our plan hasn’t always worked and the results haven’t always been what we’d have wanted – and at points deserved but for him we approached Crawley in the same manner and got what we deserved this time round.

‘This is a difficult place to play and there was no expectation, just a plan. The plan evolved and it transpired into us winning 4-0. It looks comfortable on paper, but it was far from comfortable – like every game. We’re in League One and it’s important that we carry on developing, learning and progressing.’

Of course that win will do us the world of good confidence wise, it will lift the players and put a string in their step and we have to hope that we can keep our mini winning run going, or at the very least remain unbeaten in a few more to keep those spirits up amongst the players.

It’s still very early but following those three points the league table looks a lot healthier and gives us that breathing room to keep refining ourselves with this level and learning as the gaffer wants.

‘At the minute everything seems rosy in the Rochdale garden, we won, we’ve won during the week and have been beaten once in the last five. We’re making progress and that’s the aim this season, the aim is to make progress and make big strides.’

With goals being spread around the team at the moment, Hill says that is just a bonus as whilst a single recognised scorer is obviously an asset, in some ways you get more consistency when goals can come from anywhere because you aren’t relying on one or two people to maintain their form and their golden touch in the penalty box – and of course with an obvious threat like that teams can work on shutting them down, and that’s far harder to do if you don’t know exactly where a goal threat can come from.

With two consecutive clean sheets now to our name as well, the gaffer was adamant that wasn’t a coincidence with the return of Jack O’Connell.

‘There’s no coincidence whatsoever. You’ve got to look at the whole team as a defensive unit, look at the energy we play with, the way we close down, and Conrad Logan has done exceptionally well – his distribution is as good as you’re going to get. But Jack is the one player that if I could have sold my house and brought him during the summer it’s something I would have done.’

The gaffer adds that ultimately he couldn’t leave his wife and kids homeless though – they might object – so instead we’ve took him on loan.

A telling final piece in the jigsaw again though and the youngster just goes from strength to strength.