HILL SETS SIGHTS ON ‘MIRACLE’ WIN
Rochdale out to shock Tottenham at Wembley
POSITIVE manager Keith Hill has insisted Rochdale won’t be just turning up at Wembley to enjoy a night out – and that Dale are focused on pulling off ‘a miracle’.
Last Sunday, subsitutute Steven Davies popped up with a last-gasp equaliser to earn the League One strugglers a magnificent 2-2 draw against Premier League fat-cats Tottenham in their fifth round tie.
It’s earned them a lucrative replay against Spurs at the home of football on Wednesday night. Dale will be even bigger underdogs than in the first tie at home, but Hill hasn’t ruled out causing a massive Cup shock.
“To play at Wembley is a privilege,” said the Rochdale stalwart. “It’s beyond the wildest dreams of everyone, it’s a big game for the football club and the town.
“Now we’re trying to come up with a plan to win the game – we aren’t just going to go there and roll over. Wembley is a perfect pitch and it’s going to be tough when you look at their stats against Premier League opponents at Wembley never mind Real Madrid in the Champions League, but we are going to try to achieve the impossible dream. At the first whistle, it’s 11 against 11. “We’re not going to get many chances and we have to take them when they come. Whether we can stop them getting the number of chances they did against Newport in the last round remains to be seen, but we have no intention of just going to make up the numbers.
“We want to get into the quarter-finals. We need a miracle plan and miracle performances. For us to score two goals against them at home gives us a lot of encouragement.”
Wigan’s stunning 1-0 win against Manchester City last Monday night, albeit at home, has given Hill and his Dale troops a little extra belief that they could do the unthinkable.
Success
“Wigan had very little possession, but they played the perfect game and it was just reward for a perfect defensive gameplan,” said Hill, whose team visited Wigan yesterday in League One. “It can be done.” For a club working on limited resources, the Cup run has been a massive boost. Dale have already guaranteed themselves approaching £650,000 in terms of television broadcast fees and prize money, and the Tottenham replay will add another hefty chunk of cash. However, Dale were forced to spend around half-a-million pounds on relaying their Spotland pitch, massively eating into their earnings. And Hill is keen to set one thing straight.
“We paid for the pitch,” said the 48-year-old. “There were a lot of suggestions that Tottenham subsidised the pitch – they didn’t. I want to quash that rumour.
“The board of directors have invested heavily in the pitch, not just for this season but for the future. We needed the investment in the pitch. We were getting a lot of adverse publicity and it wasn’t fit for purpose. I’m thankful to the board for doing it and now we have to protect it and maintain it.”
Whatever happens in the Cup, Dale’s big priority is retaining their League One status. Although their 0-0 home draw against MK Dons in midweek lifted them off the bottom of the table, they remained ten points from safety, albeit with games in hand on the teams above them.
“Over the next seven games, the main requirement is to get within five points of safety,” he said. “If we can do that with ten games to go, we would give ourselves a real chance.”