Dale manager hoping to end torrid run of heavy defeats

KEITH Hill and his struggling Rochdale side will be looking to turn a corner when they play host to City’s U21s this evening in the Checkatrade Trophy.

Hill and his players were booed by their own fans during Saturday’s 4-0 home defeat against Burton Albion in League One, their third successive heavy loss after another 4-0 home defeat by Bradford and a 5-0 reverse at Doncaster.

Hill admitted Saturday was the most difficult of his time at the club as a player, coach and manager – but insists he’s looking forward to tonight’s third round clash.

“The fans are not happy and I understand them not being happy but it can get a lot worse,” he said.

“I’ve had it myself, when I was at Blackburn I was booed off the pitch personally on my own when we were going for promotion and we lost three or four on the bounce.

“You have got to build your character, your grit, your desire to prove people wrong, instead of going with the flow you have got to change direction, change the mentality of the people criticising you.

“And the only way of doing that is being brave and then brave performances hopefully turn into good results.

“There’s a lot of mental tiredness, fatigue. But it’s a great game on Tuesday and I’m looking forward to it.

“They are a magical team to watch, even at U21 and U23 level. They are amazing and it’s going to be brilliant to take them on. I have a restriction in that I have to pick four players who meet certain criteria. If I could do, with the amount of games we’ve played recently, I’d try to change of all eleven, but I can’t do that and meet the criteria. I want to win this game.”