Three-point opener vital for tight race

VICTORY against Chesterfield lifted Rochdale into fourth place in the League One table – but Keith Hill insisted the main thing was to open the festive fixture programme with a three-point return.

Dale opened up a three-point gap between themselves and seventh-placed Peterborough in what is proving a tight race for the play-offs. But with half the season to go, Hill was not looking too far ahead.

“We are just looking at the three points. They are testing times over Christmas for any squad and we have three points on the board now for the festive period,” he said. “When we missed the penalty and Joe Rafferty missed a second half opportunity you’re almost thinking ‘is it going to be our day?’ because I thought we threatened superbly for most of the afternoon.

“But Ian Henderson broke the deadlock and I felt Steven Davies was instrumental in the way we scored those goals.

“I know he missed his penalty and he was a bit fed up with that because he’s a natural goalscorer, but I thought he was outstanding, with respect to the way he played centre forward, bringing players into the picture.

“I thought we dominated the first half, kept them penned in and played the windy conditions well. The conditions were a lot worse than they seemed but we played them exceptionally well in the second half.

“We knew Chesterfield would try to turn us and get in behind in the second half because of the wind, but I thought we could play the ball through them because they were going to be closer to the halfway line, and I thought we did that superbly well. We were good value for money for the three points.

“Everybody contributed, Calvin came in and scored a goal and defended set-pieces superbly well for us. They are a big threat at set-plays, but I thought we defended really well.

“A clean sheet against a team with an outstanding striker in Evans in their attack and we suppressed him and suppressed them.”

‘They are testing times over Christmas for any squad’