Manager Keith Hill looks ahead to Rochdale’s Emirates FA Cup fourth round tie against Huddersfield Town…
Dale welcome the Championship side to the Crown Oil Arena on Saturday, and while Hill has injuries to several key players to deal with, including Joe Bunney, Josh Lillis, Matty Lund and Oliver Rathbone, he’s in positive spirits after a good week on the training pitch.
“It has been a good week with respect to stabilising, because it got as bad as it could have done at the end of last week and into Saturday [with respect to injuries],” Hill told Dale PlayerHD.
“Since then, we’ve been working really hard with the squad of players that we’ve got and we’ve had a very good week with respect to recruitment, and making sure that we’re well prepared for this weekend’s fixture.
“It was disjointed last week but I fully understood everything that went on. I know there’s going to be a great response this weekend.
“We’ve been working with the players that we’ve got available but we also gave them a good rest as well. It was important that we made sure that the players were well rested up, because we’re going to go into what is a really productive period of the season after this month has finished.”
And Hill says he and the players are relishing the opportunity to go up against the Terriers.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge of trying to win this game. One thing we’ve done at this football club is win games, and we’ll continue to win games because of the way that we play, the way that we prepare the players and the ambition of the players to do well.
“There are no guarantees, but the one thing we will guarantee on Saturday is the same thing I expect from my players every week - endeavour, hard-work and honesty. The players are fit and they’re going to have to put our processes into practice against what is a very good Huddersfield side.”
Huddersfield currently sit fifth in the Championship, and Hill is full of praise for their Manager, David Wagner.
“I enjoy watching Huddersfield. I think the manager has turned, dare I say, an average Championship team into promotion contenders. I think they’ve – the Chief Exec and the owner – have done an amazing job at the club, and the players have all responded to the manager.
“I think the manager has been very cute in the loan market with the transfer activity they’ve done. He has proved that on less resources you can be very successful within any league that you play in.”
Click through on the embedded link above to hear a five-minute snippet of the Gaffer’s pre-match interview.
Watch the full 11-minute interview on Dale PlayerHD.