Hill: Dale will aim high to avoid drop
ROCHDALE boss Keith Hill says his side need to look beyond their relegation rivals and try to target a mid-table finish in order to give themselves the best chance of avoiding the drop.
Dale are second from bottom in the division with nine games remaining,
‘Momentum is about a feel-good factor... fans can inject belief into the players’
and are around 10 points behind some of the teams occupying the places between 15th and 17th.
With that in mind, Hill says his team should attempt to finish in those places, rather than just set themselves a goal of finishing fifth from bottom.
“We’ve got to be looking at the teams that are midtable and saying ‘this is where we need to be, what are we going to do and what do we have to do to catch up with one or two of the teams that are midtable,” he said.
“We’re not looking at Oldham, MK Dons, Northampton.
“We’ve got to look beyond that and say ‘this is achievable with the games that we’ve got’ and let’s aim for it.
“I would like everybody to be united in our push to avoid relegation.
“We have nine opportunities and it’s not going to happen in the first opportunity, it’s going to happen over a period of nine opportunities if we’re going to retain our League One status.
“Momentum is about a feel-good factor, feeling good about yourselves and supporting one another. I think that gathers momentum.
“It can be orchestrated by a support group as well – the fans.
“They can inject belief into the players.
“I think we all witnessed the support last Saturday at Scunthorpe, and I think we need to take that mental attitude towards supporting this group of players.
This isn’t me having a go at the supporters, this is me praying that they maintain belief and inject belief into the group of players that they can stand up to this challenge, but relax in the challenge as well.
“It’s important that we have that family, all inclusive, us against the world mentality, and it’s important that we regain that over these next ten games.
“Preparations are a piece of cake!
“It’s the easiest thing you can do during the week.
“All that preparation has got to manifest itself into a performance on a matchday.
“It’s been a welcome break not playing in midweek.
“Now it’s for the lights, camera, action. Let’s perform now and see how good we are at really acting out what we’ve practised during the week.
“We’ve certainly been training with good spirit and hopefully with momentum off the back of what was a good performance against Scunthorpe last week.
“We’ve got nine games to go and we’re really looking forward to them.”