Rochdale made it three wins on the bounce on Wednesday evening with a convincing 4-2 win over Southend United at Spotland.
The win propelled Dale to 13th in the league table and eleven points clear of the relegation zone.
Manager Keith Hill gave his thoughts on the game to Dale Player:
“It’s difficult to recreate what we produced at Fleetwood but we went somewhere near. We scored four goals but I was disappointed with the two goals we conceded, particularly the timing of the first one. We responded really well and the goal that took us to 2-1 was a brilliant piece of individual skill by George Donnelly and it has won the match for us.
“For me, special praise has got to go to Peter Cavanagh. I thought he was excellent in managing the way that we played and he’s been responding exceptionally well to the way we want play. He can lend himself to me very well with his knowledge of the game so hopefully there’s more to come.”
He continued: “The confidence, the energy and the commitment was there and it is what I expect. The lads want to win, they’re enjoying winning and performing well and I’m pleased.
“The players like being liked and winning football matches, and if you win football matches there’s more of a kindred spirit between themselves and the supporters, as well as who they work with and work for. They want more of it, I want more of it, but we’ve got to tweak a few things and make sure we scratch up, but I’m reasonably happy.”
Automatic promotion hopefuls Port Vale are the visitors to Spotland this Saturday and Hill is already focused on the visit of Micky Adams’ side: “It will be a difficult game but we’re in good form and we’re playing well. I don’t think anyone will underestimate our energy, our endeavour, our commitment and the capability of scoring goals because we do create chances.
“We’re looking forward to it and I think there’s going to be a bumper crowd. It’s an opportunity for us to be looking up the league again because tonight [Wednesday] we’ve gone level with Southend and I don’t see any reason why we can’t start invading the top ten.”
You can listen to Hilly's full interview on DALE PLAYER now.