Manager Keith Hill has praised the performance of his players following Dale’s 1-0 win over Charlton Athletic, labelling it as “genuine, honest and hard-working”, as he offered his thoughts on the game…
“The performance had a lot of courage in it,” said the Gaffer in his post-match interview.
“League One is very difficult – the opponents are a very good side that are represented by a very good manager, so it was a stern test for us but we created goal scoring opportunities and we did well to defend our goal, so I’m pleased. Well done to the players.
“Some of the refereeing decisions confused me. I should probably get reacquainted with the laws of the game because I was a little bit perturbed with respect to some of the decisions that we made, but I thought we played well. It was a genuine, honest, hard-working performance.
“I think we could have been slightly better in possession. At every opportunity we tried to attack. Our full-backs should have slowed the game down a little bit more, but I’m pleased.
“It’s 1-0, we’re at home, we’re getting points on the board which we need if we’re going to have a chance of staying in League One so we’re giving ourselves a fair crack of the whip.
“I thought the lads dealt with the pressure of only having won once at home [before today] well. I think the last performance at home, against Doncaster, was very good and it didn’t reflect the scoreline but I thought we were worthy winners today.
Saturday’s game against the Addicks was the first of four consecutive home games for Rochdale and Hill hopes Dale can use the confidence gained from the victory to bounce into the match against Luton Town.
“We can’t do what we did on Tuesday and have a negative bounce. We want players who want to retain the shirts and retain their place on the substitutes bench, rather than me having to think and work extra hard, which is what I’m doing at this moment in time to select a side that represents our values and the opponents’ values. I think we got the balance right today but it took me a long time to pick that side and get it out there. It has taken a lot of energy out of me to try and select a side - it would be nice to pick the same 11 consistently.
“We were at it from the get go and that’s why we got the performance. We didn’t give the opposition time and instead of me changing tactics, they were changing tactics. If you’ve got all your players putting everything into the performance then you will get results. One quality we should always have over any opposition is our energy, our work rate and our honesty. I think we showed that today and it certainly gave us a platform for the result.
“It has always been mantra that you can have bad talent days at work but you should never have bad work day, so I’m pleased for the players and pleased that we’ve secured the victory that puts us on 19 points from 16 games.
“It’ll give us confidence. We’ve played some very talented sides at home and we’ve had one or two good performances where we haven’t had the results but you need to make the most of your home form and hopefully that’s the start of things to come.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.