Manager Keith Hill reflects on his side’s defeat to Plymouth Argyle at the Crown Oil Arena…
After a goalless 72 minutes, mainly dominated by Dale, the visitors took the lead through Joel Grant, but Bradden Inman levelled proceedings just three minutes later.
However, the deciding goal came in unfortunate circumstances, as David Perkins’ ball back to Josh Lillis ended up in the back of his net.
Speaking in his post-match interview, the Gaffer commented: “We dominated possession, which we knew we would probably have. We defended well today – I had no problem with respect to stopping their threat, but there was again a common theme when teams come and sit behind the ball. You’re looking for that one opportunity – the players have got to be more convincing in the final third in terms of decision making.
“We shouldn’t have lost that game today, we shouldn’t have conceded at all but we’ve ended up conceding two. I’m disappointed with the first goal because it’s a switch off from the throw in – we’ve got the ball and we end up conceding. We knew we had to be aware of the counter-attack, and I thought we dealt well with that, so I’m disappointed that we’ve been beaten by an own goal. I can’t explain the mistake.
“There’s nothing wrong with what David Perkins does, nothing whatsoever. It’s not a question of playing out – David Perkins has made the right choice and the right decision in that situation. Unfortunately, Josh has miss-kicked it or, as he believes, there was a little bit of bobble, but it’s a ghost’s goal.
“They’ve had two shots on target and one of them was after we put Ryan Delaney up front. Putting Ryan up front meant I was playing MJ Williams at the back on his own against Ryan Taylor because I was pushing everyone forward to try and get an equaliser. Up until them scoring the goal and us getting an equaliser, I was relatively pleased with how the game had gone, except for what we haven’t done in the final third.
“We have to be more convincing and we need to show more conviction. Individually we have to take players on rather than passing across lines and we need to run and pass through lines, and that’s the only disappointment because I thought we controlled the game - it wasn’t a question of them letting us have the ball so they could stay in control with respect to position. I just thought that we didn’t make the most of the possession we got in the final third.
“The speed of the passes through the lines has got to be quicker. It can’t stop with Calvin Andrew facing his own goal, we have to be getting players beyond Calvin at the right time. I was disappointed but that was the only real disappointment of the day with respect to the performance. Obviously the result was disappointing but I understand the result when we concede the second goal like we did.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.