Manager Keith Hill on Dale’s 3-0 win over Walsall at the Banks’s Stadium…
“We did well tonight,” said Hill.
“We played some nice football and defended quite well, and Josh Lillis makes a penalty save to keep a clean sheet.
“From the players’ perspective I don’t what to go over the top and say marvellous, superb, brilliant and then we fall on our backsides against Rotherham at the weekend. It’s got to be back-to-back-to-back-to-back wins, or else we’re going down, but I think the players realise the position that we’re in.
“We have to win these games so that we’re like a stealth bomber and silently creep up on teams, so that when they’re sat at home with their feet up with a cup of tea they can be looking at the league table and thinking ‘where did they come from?’. Our plan is to be successful and to win football matches.”
Jimmy McNulty scored his first goal for the club, heading home from a Bradden Inman corner to break the deadlock.
Hill is pleased to see a defender on the score sheet but would like it to happen more often.
“It was a good header and a good goal, and he should score more. With the players that we’ve got, we should score more from set-plays.”
Alex Dobre opened his Dale account on his debut, scoring a stunning effort late in the game, but Hill is looking for more from the on loan youngster.
“He did one thing in the game – what else did he do? I want more hard work, I want more pressing and I want more tracking runners. If he’s got the natural ability to do that [score that type of goal], the other things should come naturally and then he’d be a world beater! He’s a young kid and he’s got great feet which we see in training, but does he work harder than Ian Henderson? No. If he starts doing that then he’ll be a Premier League player.”
Josh Lillis saved a penalty at 2-0, after Ryan Delaney was adjudged to have brought down Amadou Bakayok inside the area.
Hill is pleased that Lillis kept Erhun Oztumer out from 12-yards.
“Delaney is growing and I’m glad he didn’t get punished for his penalty mistake because he’s honest. Is he the most pleasing on the eye in possession? No. But he’s a proper defender and that’s what he should be first and foremost. I’m glad he, and we as a team, didn’t get punished because I thought he was magnificent.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.