Hill: Fight with, not against us
KEITH Hill has urged Rochdale supporters to cut out ‘disrespectful’ terrace chants and get behind him and his team.
Hill celebrated his 500th league game as a manager with a 2-0 win against Peterborough at the weekend, but was far from happy with what he heard from a small minority at the Crown Oil Arena.
“I’m happy with the performance and the result but I’m not happy hearing ‘You must be s@## because we’re winning at home’ when you look at our home record,” said Hill.
“When you go through bad times I expect better support, better belief, better backing.
“Whenever I go out in Rochdale I get asked am I going to stay? Am I going to be loyal to this club? I have been loyal to this club but it looks like people don’t want to show loyalty back to me and that makes me very angry.
“I have turned down opportunities to leave this club. I’ve shown loyalty and trust and I expect it back.”
Hill also mentioned hearing calls of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ and initially took that to mean him – however, it was later clarified that those calls had not been directed at the manager but were lighthearted banter among supporters in the Pearl Street stand.
Nevertheless, he insists there is no place for negative, disrespectful songs.
“To suggest, to a certain degree, that we are rubbish at home, why are we winning? I don’t like that. If it’s said in jest or whatever, I don’t like it,” he said.
“I expect support from the board of directors and the chairman and I get that, and I expect it from our fans, as simple as that. It may be a small per-centage but I don’t like it when our own supporters are singing disrespectful songs about us. We have a very good home record, there’s no question about that, and it can be demoralising.
“We are trying to build a future here and we’re trying to build for the right here, right now and I expect everyone to pull together.
“If people want to fight, they shouldn’t be fightng against us, they should be fighting with us. That’s how I’ve been brought up. If someone of your own is fighting against you, it’s wrong.”