We’re resigned to relegation admits Rochdale boss Hill

KEITH Hill admitted ‘League One is getting the better of us’ after his Rochdale side fell to a 5-1 thumping at Plymouth.

Struggling Dale played the last half an hour of the game without defender Ethan Ebanks-Landell, who was dismissed on 58 minutes with the scores level at 1-1.

Argyle made the extra man count to devastating effect as Freddie Ladapo added a second of his own to cancel out Matt Done’s equaliser.

And with Dale on the ropes, the home side netted further goals for Ryan Edwards, Oscar Threlkeld and Ashley Smith-Brown.

It’s Dale’s third defeat in a row and has seen them drop into the bottom four, just one place above AFC Wimbledon, the side who beat them 4-3 at the Crown Oil Arena just four days earlier. Said Hill: “We know where we are – we’re struggling in League One.

“We’re trying our best to keep our heads above water but it looks as though, on evidence, we’re resigned to relegation.

“So don’t fear it, embrace it, accept it, challenge it in the 12 games we’ve got and go against it. Realise that it [relegation] is more than a possibility and take it on.

“League One is getting the better of us financially and player wise. You can’t keep selling your players to the devil and expect to be dancing with God.

“Once you sell your players to the devil you dance to his tune. I’m not blaming anybody – that’s the economics of football and it has been for that last 113 years at the club. It’s a hard fight at this moment in time.”