Manager Keith Hill reflects on his side’s 3-1 win over Chesterfield at the Proact Stadium…
Ian Henderson put Dale ahead in the 16th minute, and goals from Callum Camps and Jamie Allen shortly before half-time gave Dale a comfortable lead at the break. Kristian Dennis pulled one back for the home side early in the second half.
“I’m happy after that," Hill told Dale PlayerHD.
“It’s difficult to play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday because it saturates energy so I can understand the little bit of tiredness during the second half.
“I thought our first half performance was superb. There could have been and should have been more goals.
“We had a stone wall penalty denied in the second half and I don’t know how the referee ends up doing what’s he done – he almost makes up his own rule up. He waves play on but then there’s a second foul, which is an obvious penalty, but he pulls it back for the first foul. He does brilliantly to wave play on but once he’s played on there’s an infringement and it’s a penalty.
“I said it during the week in my interview – I don’t know what’s going to happen to a team who are resigned to being in the bottom four, and when they [Chesterfield] were 3-0 down at half time they came out for the second half with a different mentality. They had a fighter’s spirit and that's good to see if you’re the home manager. They scored, what I consider, to be a very good goal and they hit the cross bar. You could argue that it was a game of two halves but it was a game we deserved to win.”
Henderson’s opener was his 100th career goal and Hill was impressed with the finish.
“It’s a cheeky little chip. It’s a skill, it’s an art and it’s a craft. I think it was an excellent goal and it was an excellent pass from Keano. To regain possession like he did and put the ball through was superb, and it was a great strike.”
After having picked up seven points in a week, Hill is pleased going into the last eight games of the season but he admits he’s mindful of fatigue with the games coming thick and fast.
“I think we’ve got a little bit of a fatigue injury with Joe Bunney. It’s a difficult one to balance – I’m trying to balance players’ fitness with getting points and it’s important that we got points today. When you consider we drew with Millwall during the week, then we’ve picked up seven points in our last three games, and we’re on 57 points with eight games to go.
“We’re playing free of any pressure because we’re not in a relegation battle. We’re playing free, we’ve got a great attacking intent and I’m happy going into the remaining eight games with the squad of players that we’ve got.”
Watch the full interview on Dale PlayerHD.