Rochdale ended their pre-season games scheduled with a 3-0 win over FC United at Broadhurst Park on Saturday.
With the countdown to the start of the 2016-17 campaign now well underway, Manager Keith Hill has told Dale PlayerHD that he’s pleased with what has been achieved over the last month.
“We’ve got through most of pre-season with relatively few scares in terms of injuries. The lads who didn’t play today – Peter Vincenti, Niall Canavan, Reuben Noble-Lazarus and Matty Lund – are all carrying little injuries which will hopefully be right for this week or for the fixture against Peterborough, so I’m relatively pleased going into the season with what we’re trying to achieve.”
He again reiterated that he’d still like to bring in another three players, but admits he’s happy with how the squad is looking going into the new campaign.
“I do want three more players but there will be nobody in this week. That’ll probably be just before the window closes in August. We’ve got one or two that we want in but we haven’t been given permission and there are other suitors for those players.
“It’s just a question of looking at the squad, and when I look at the players that we had out on the pitch today and the players who weren’t playing in addition to the players who are injured but will be available at some point, then I think we’re quite healthy.
“We’ve just got to be careful that we don’t get complacent because we’ve known each other for a long time now. The only thing that can really upset us is ourselves, because we’re as good as anybody when we get it right. But we have to get it right consistently and we have to get it right consistently mentally as well, and that’s what I’m looking for.”
And he says the week ahead will see him and his side continue their preparations for Saturday’s league opener against Peterborough United at Spotland.
“We’ve done a lot of planning in evaluating our fitness and the way that we want to play. We started planning and evaluating Peterborough this week and that’s what we intend on doing going into the game to see how best we can play well to hopefully get a victory.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.