Boss Keith Hill hails 10-man Rochdale

Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2018 by PA

Rochdale boss Keith Hill was delighted with the way his side played out half of the goalless draw against Bristol Rovers with just 10 men.

Dale had goalkeeper Magnus Norman dismissed on the stroke of half-time for a foul on Stefan Payne, but were good value for a point and were the better team in the second half.

While Hill was disappointed with his team’s defending in the incident which led to Norman’s dismissal, he was pleased with the response.

“The first half ended dramatically with Magnus getting sent off and then the second half is very difficult but I thought we managed it very well,” he said.

“You are always going to come under pressure, the opposition will always create opportunities, but I thought it was pretty even in the second half.

“They gave us a lot of space in the second half, I think they came to sit deep and counter-attack us. It was one of the things we mentioned before the game, and it was important that we showed good energy and were on the front foot.

“The key decision of the game, where the referee sends the goalkeeper off, was poor defending from us as a side.

“It’s a shame because there is no way that Magnus should have been sent-off but the lads did themselves proud with respect to building blocks.

“We have conceded a lot of goals and they could have gone lame and felt like victims, but they didn’t, they reacted in the way that I expect them to.

“I was really happy with the commitment, the energy and the basic values of any competitive team.”

Rovers were on top in the first half and struck the crossbar through Payne while Ollie Clarke lost out in a one-on-one against Norman.

Dale created more chances once down to 10 men, with Ollie Rathbone and Brad Inman denied by Jack Bonham. Dale’s substitute goalkeeper Josh Lillis pulled off two fine saves to frustrate both Liam Sercombe and Rovers’ boss Darrell Clarke.

“We’re disappointed because they’ve had to play half the game with 10 men and we created the better chances on the night,” Clarke said.

“It was a humdinger of a game, probably quite entertaining in the first half but slowed down by the sending-off on the stroke of half-time.

“Credit to Rochdale, they played very well with 10 men, they sat off and looked dangerous on the counter-attack while we didn’t get the overloads right.

“You’ve got to count every point in the bag at the minute.

“We are fighting hard. We’re not fluent and we haven’t quite got the partnerships working up front, albeit we created some very good chances.

“We are harder to beat now, we’re not the soft touch we were away from home at times last season.”