Manager Keith Hill reflects on Dale’s 2-1 defeat to Blackpool at the Crown Oil Arena…
“The first half could have gone either way, but then the game went their way with the first goal and the second goal seals the game,” said Hill.
“That’s what we’re going through and you’ve got to accept it. You’ve got to accept the result and move on, it’s as simple as that.
“You don’t hope for better, you build for better, so you’ve got to find a starting point. Like I said to the players, we’re looking for good people to bounce.
“When you reach rock bottom, everybody wants to kick you, grab a piece of you, be negative towards you, but you’ve got to bounce. I’ve always lived by those rules as a person, as a football player and as a manager. Good people bounce and I’m expecting a good changing room to bounce.
“We can stand here and make excuses and come up with reasons, but the fact of the matter is that we’re in bad form, we’re in a terrible position in the league, so the only way is up.”
He continued: “When we go 2-0 down it shouldn’t be DIY football. We’ve got to stick to the disciplines that will give you a positive place to build. It’s happening too regularly that when we go a goal behind we go DIY and become a victim of the state of play or the score line, but we’ve got make sure we stay in games.
“The players have got to learn quickly how to fight in this position and do better, because I thought the first half was relatively even. We didn’t start brightly in the second half which put us on the back foot and the result is the conclusion of a little bit of indecision.
“I just didn’t want the score line to go beyond retrievable from a confidence point of view. The players have got to find their own confidence and this is where bottoming out and looking at the league, hopefully we can get a positive bounce.
“You’ve got to accept the position that you are in and start responding to it, and that’s what I’m looking for from the players.”
He added: “It’s difficult being a manager at this moment in time but I’ve got to find solutions, the players have got to find them themselves while being guided by me within the framework that I’m proposing to them, and that’s how hopefully we’ll get success.
“I have to manage this group of players with the same values that my Dad and my family brought me up with. I’ve been relatively successful throughout the course of life and I intend on continuing to be.
“It’s a fight, but we’ll all stick together and there’s no way that I’ll stand back from my responsibilities. If anyone is starting to put pressure on the situation at the football club then they should put it on me and not on the players, because the players ultimately have to perform to turn the form around and they need support. Everybody needs support when they are most vulnerable – they don’t need kicking.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.