HILL’S HAPPY TO END ‘CRISIS’
ROCHDALE boss Keith Hill took huge satisfaction in calming the baying crowds with a welldeserved win against League One pacesetters Burton.
The hosts went into the game on the back of a 6-1 thumping at Hill's former team Barnsley a week earlier.
But this time around they showed class and determination in securing a result, bouncing back from successive defeats as a goal from Callum Camps and an Ian Henderson penalty meant Lucas Akins’ reply was a mere consolation.
Hill said: “I thought it was a very good performance for two thirds of the game.
“I'm really pleased because I think there was a real overreaction after the Barnsley result. I had to reassure the players that there was no crisis at the club, it was just one result, one horrendous result.
“When I look at it in the cold light of day, the League One status that we’ve got and our history and potential future of what I am trying to build at the club, I thought it was bit naughty trying to create that drama and that crisis when there wasn’t one.
“We’ve secured a great result here and that gets us back on track.”
The home side took the lead after just eight minutes when midfielder Camps cracked home his second goal of the season, a superb strike from 25 yards.
Akins saw a shot blocked as the Brewers sought a swift response, but the hosts were well in control and struck a second goal in the 24th minute.
This time it came from the penalty spot as Henderson dusted himself down after being pushed by John Mousinho, and coolly slotted past Jon McLaughlin.
Anthony O’Connor headed home for Burton, who thought they’d halved the deficit until they were denied by an assistant referee’s offside flag.
Rochdale maintained their impressive momentum early in the second period, with skipper Jamie Allen crashing in a shot which McLaughlin parried on to the roof of the net.
At the other end, Damien McCrory saw a well-struck half-volley beaten away by Josh Liillis.
The Brewers grabbed themselves a lifeline after 78 minutes. Mousinho’s long ball forward was met by Akins, who expertly lifted his fifth goal of the season up and over the advancing Lillis.
Tom Naylor came closest to grabbing an unlikely point for Burton, but a draw would have been a cruel outcome for gutsy Rochdale.
Brewers boss Nigel Clough said:“This goes to show once again that there are no gimmes in this division.
“Rochdale probably deserved to win the game overall.We pushed on for the final ten or 15 minutes, but whether the ball just wouldn’t drop for us I’m not sure. It just wasn’t our day.
“We certainly didn’t see the same team out there that had played so well against Peterborough in midweek. “It’s difficult to explain really. “In the first half we just didn’t see the movement that our players usually produce.”