Manager Keith Hill spoke to Dale Player ahead of Saturday’s League One encounter v Chesterfield at Spotland…
“We’ve worked hard on the training pitch all week and we’re looking forward to the game. That’s the great thing about a football season – there are 46 games.
“If we look back at the last five games then we’ve won two, drawn one and lost two, but everyone looks back at the last two games. If we look back at the first five games of the season we had four points – lost three, drawn one and won one.
“And that’s what we’re doing now; we’re looking at the first five games of the second half of the season. I’m disappointed that we haven’t got three more points because that’s where I expected us to be, but equally so, I think the league table gets confused because of the games that we haven’t played.”
He continued: “We’ve scored 50 league goals – that’s more than any time last season, more than any time the season before, or the season before that for the games that we’ve played. We’ve got the highest conversation rate of chances created in League One and there’s a little bit of psychology in that.
“It gives the players confidence, self-belief and reassurance that they’re doing the right thing. If the self-belief and the confidence are down a little bit you tend to dwell on decisions and you can come up with the wrong decisions. Unfortunately in the last two games I think that’s what has happened because the general play has been ok, it has been more than acceptable.
“I think if we had gone down a league we would have got something from both the games but League One is a big kick up in standard, not just for the players, for the Manager as well. It does take its toll sometimes, both mentally and physically, but we always knew it was going to happen.”
The full interview is available to view on Dale Player.