Hill’s tale of woe as Dale lose their way
ROCHDALE manager Keith Hill felt his team were hard done by as their play-off hopes were dealt a blow.
Top scorer Josh Morris scored his seventh of the season as Fleetwood – outplayed in the first half – boosted their own playoff chances.
Hill’s side enjoyed the bulk of possession throughout and the Dale boss insisted his side did not get their rewards.
“I don’t think it was a fair result,” said Hill.“We totally dominated possession. There’s a way I want the game to be played and sometimes, as a result of playing that way, you do lose games.
“We wanted the ball, the opposition didn’t. It’s as simple as that, but possession counts for nothing unless you penetrate.”
Rochdale started by pinning Fleetwood back, yet they didn’t convert their first-half superiority into chances of note.
The closest Hill’s men came was through a shot by diminutive midfielder Jamie Allen in the fourth minute, which forced Fleetwood goalkeeper Chris Maxwell into a routine save and a Peter Vincenti shot that was blocked by Mark Roberts.
It took until the first minute of the second half for Fleetwood to register a meaningful effort on goal.
Then, Morris drilled a left-footed shot inches wide from just outside the box.
With both sides search- ing for quality in the final third, Fleetwood’s talisman, Morris – relatively quiet until this point – provided it just before the hour.
He fired a low leftfooted shot from long range that arrowed into the bottom corner past Dale keeper Jamie Jones’ desperate dive.
It was a strike that had Fleetwood manager Graham Alexader drooling afterwards.
“We have already seen this season what a superb left foot he has,” said Alexander. “He wants to score goals and it was a fantastic strike.
“As long as we win and we score goals, we don’t care who they come from, but it’s important we feel we have midfield players who can create and score goals and have strikers who can do that.
“The work rate and defensive commitment from every single player was superb.”
Stewart Murdock nearly sealed the victory for Fleetwood in spectacular style with a dipping volley from 25 yards with five minutes to go. His effort hit the corner of the crossbar and Morris struck the rebound wide.
Dale pressed until the end but were unable to find a way past Town’s rock-solid central defensive pairing of Roberts and Nathan Pond as Fleetwood completed a league double over their visitors.