No fear for Dale in Pompey test
ROCHDALE will be out to replicate their successful run in last season’s FA Cup when Portsmouth arrive at the Crown Oil Arena tomorrow for a second round clash.
Kenny Jackett’s men were 3-1 winners when the sides met in September but Dale chief Keith Hill insists the intention will be to cause the kind of upset which propelled them into the fifth round of the competition last season.
Dale overcame Championship side Millwall before holding Premier League giants Tottenham to a 2-2 draw at home in the fifth round. That set up a memorable trip to Wembley for the replay, where Hill’s men were level at the halfway stage before Spurs pulled clear after the break.
Dale will head into tomorrow’s tie as underdogs against a side four points clear at the top of League One – but that suits Hill.
“It’s a game that is winnable, no question about that. We have to be competitive, be at our very best and we have no fear going into the tie,” he said.
“They are going to be favourites but we have had great success in the FA Cup in recent years and we’re looking forward to the experience again.
“They are an excellent side, they are the men’s team of the league with respect to knowledge, know-how and they put it all into action with performances.
“They have a squad of players that can deal with the pressures of being top of the league. They are an outstanding side.
“But it’s a fixture in isolation that we believe we can win.
“Last time we played them there were certain aspects of the game that I was really pleased with but I was disappointed with the way that we allowed them to score the second goal. It’s a minor detail but it’s negative detail and we have to make sure we are better when we play against the best team in League One.”
Dale have blown hot and cold in recent weeks with their best form coming at home while on the road they have struggled, Tuesday’s 4-2 defeat at Oxford their third away loss in a row.
However, Hill said the search for consistency has been ongoing for the last three seasons and is inevitable for a club regrouping after losing key players of Matty Lund, Jamie Allen and Nathaniel MendezLaing’s calibre, and one that is relying on the longterm strategy of developing its own players rather than taking the gamble of overstretching financially.
“We’ve been consistently inconsistent for some time now,” admitted Hill. “I’ve alluded to it before – we got a massive bounce from promotion in our first League One season. But the season after we lost 22 games, won 19. So the inconsistency has been there for a while.
“If you are developing players as a manager you have to keep forgiving, or you can invest, which means spending money. To do that you need money, you need investment, to be a cash rich club.
“Matty Gillam has been a big miss for us because he was right where we wanted him to be in terms of his development up to his injury against Bury, so we are one down there. Zach Clough keeps running into small injuries.
“But you have to get on with it, persevere and take social, modern day criticism out of real life living away from your environment and focus on what’s good and what’s going to be improved, seeing players develop.
“Unfortunately, we lose players like Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Scotty Hogan or if I go back to the very first time I sold a player, Glenn Murray, who had just scored ten in ten for us and we were on track for promotion.
“It’s something every manager has to deal with, whether it’s at Rochdale or Real Madrid – they sold Cristiano Ronaldo and look at the effect of that, a massive impact!
“You’d think it would be easy for them to replace him but it seems to be very difficult.
“So everybody has their problems, just in different ways.
“The investment is either a long-term plan or it’s a financial investment. How do we improve? We just keep trying to improve the way that we are doing it or we have to get an injection of finances to assure yourself you are getting the best striker that the league can provide.
“If the chairman said to me ‘here’s £250,000 for a striker’ it would make my job a lot easier knowing I was getting a ready-made player who we needed to coach rather than develop.
“For me, there is no disappointment in learning and I try to pass the education on to the players.”
Tomorrow’s FA Cup tie against Pompey kicks off a 2pm.