Keith Hill happy to see Rochdale reproduce good form of last season

Posted Sunday, January 28, 2018 by PA

Rochdale manager Keith Hill felt his side reproduced their form of last season in their 2-2 draw at Millwall, as they came so close to producing an upset in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

After finishing ninth last year, the Dale are deep in relegation trouble in League One, but they were the better team for long periods against a team 32 league places above them.

They looked set for a famous victory thanks to Matt Done’s goal, but Ben Thompson struck in the 90th minute to earn a replay for a relieved home side.

Hill said: “Our performance was reminiscent of last season and the seasons before that.

“We just haven’t repeated it this season for whatever reason, but I did my programme notes with respect to us plateauing out and it’s up to the players to take on the challenges that have previously got us success.

“If they perform like they have done today, with that courage, then we’ll be successful.

“I wasn’t overly concerned with them scoring that first goal because of the way they were playing.

“The only concern was, confidence-wise, it could have affected the players, but it didn’t and I thought we scored a great goal.

“When we went 2-1 up, I expected us to go and score some of the other opportunities because we did create more opportunities, probably up until the 80th minute.

“The last 10 minutes, Millwall did everything to put us under pressure and they got the goal, as a result.”

Jed Wallace’s penalty gave Millwall the lead but skipper Ian Henderson equalised for Rochdale in the 31st minute with an excellent finish.

Done tapped in Andy Cannon’s deflected cross to put the underdogs ahead, but Thompson came to the Lions’ rescue by sweeping in Steve Morison’s cross.

Millwall manager Neil Harris said: “I’m disappointed with our performance in the first 60 minutes – Rochdale were deservedly in front against us, to be honest.

“I thought they came an played like the underdog, enjoyed it, got about us and I didn’t recognise the Millwall team for 60 minutes.

“After that, the last half hour, we changed the shape, we changed the personnel and we were much better and I think if we’d scored five or 10 minutes earlier, we’d probably go and win the game.

“However, on reflection, a draw is probably about right and both teams deserve to still be in the competition.

“Our final touch and end product, I thought, was really poor on the whole by us – where we were so good at Leeds last week, we were so poor today.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to take your medicine and say well done to the opponent and we live to fight another day.”