Manager Keith Hill has been reflecting on Tuesday night’s defeat at home to Accrington Stanley as well as looking ahead to this weekend’s trip to Morecambe’s Globe Arena.
Two stunning strikes from Lee Molyneux and one from Romuald Boco gave Stanley a 3-0 win at Spotland despite Dale dominating for large spells.
Hill is honest in assessment: “To a certain degree you can’t devalue certain points of the performance but the underlying factor is that we got beat and it looks as though we got beat comfortably. I received a phone call the day after and the opening gambit was ‘that was a battering’ which is unfortunate because we hadn’t been.
“We dominated but were quite flattering on ourselves with respect to domination. We were slow in transition and we allowed the opposition’s tactics to work so we fell into a trap. It’s about getting the balance right – the players are taking me literally at this moment in time but I want them to play their own natural game within a framework and we’ve got to make sure that we accept the responsibility for the focus of the team and we’re doing that. The score line was never 3-0, at worse it was 0-0, but for two wonderful goals from Lee Molyneux.
“The players were really down after the game but I’m looking for them to continue to believe, continue to show the right attitude and the right application. We got to half time again on Tuesday with a clean sheet but we’ve got to be better in front of goal and we’ve got to take our chances. We’ve got to get back to having a freedom in front of goal and we will win football matches.”
Dale head to the Globe Arena this Saturday to face a Morecambe side who have come out on top in the head to heads this season following three encounters between the two sides already this campaign and Hill is expecting another tough test:
“I think Jim Bentley (Morecambe Manager) has done an excellent job. Me and Jim played as a partnership at the centre of Morecambe’s defence and it is no surprise that he is a manager because he’s a leader. Good managers lead from the front and push from behind and that’s what Jim is doing and I’m really pleased that he’s doing well. It will be a difficult task (at Morecambe) because Jim has created a team with his own image - hard to beat, competitive and an unbelievable willingness to win.”
You can listen to the full 10 minute interview with Hill on Dale Player now.