HAT-TRICK HERO IAN SINKS GILLS
ROCHDALE boss Keith Hill hailed hat-trick hero Ian Henderson as Rochdale brushed aside Gillingham.
It was Dale’s first home win of the League One season and Henderson’s first ever hat-trick.
Hill said: “I thought Ian Henderson was excellent and I don’t know how anyone could ever doubt him.”
Henderson’s first came in the ninth minute when he collected a loose ball on the edge and smoothly slipped a shot beneath Tomas Holy.
His second came in the 18th minute following a clever pass from Matty Gillam.
And the hat-trick strike was the pick of the bunch in the 64th minute when he met Wilbraham’s cross with a superbly executed scissor kick.
It could have been worse for the Gills as Dale had also seen two efforts ruled out for fouls, Ryan Delaney and Henderson both seeing their efforts chalked off.
Hill added: “I thought the two big lads, Calvin Andrew and Aaron Wilbraham, played really well outside and we felt we could get in that way and stop them going through Tom Eaves. We were excellent at doing that so I’m really pleased with the performance.
“I feel we are developing some real leaders.
“You have got to be a survivor and win football matches as a manager and a player and we did the business.”
The visitors were poor in the final third, Eaves going closest to scoring early in the second half with a 25-yard shot which crashed against the crossbar.
With just one point from their last six games, Gills chief Steve Lovell is growing increasingly frustrated.
“They were making things happen in the box where we weren’t,” he said.
“We had a number of crosses going in and nobody getting in there.
“You can’t make excuses and I’ll never make excuses.
“I will stick up for the players when they deserve it, but I can’t do that today, they let us down, they let everybody down.
“Tom Eaves should have scored with a header at the end of the first half.
“You don’t get many chances away from home and you’ve got to take them.
“I thought there were some good performances, but you can’t get away with only four or five performing.
“If you look at Eaves, he didn’t get a kick all day because of the way their centre halves battled all the way through. “Our centre halves just got beat up all day.
“Goals change games. Last season we were going away and getting a couple of goals and then hanging on.
“We haven’t done that for a while and it’s something we need to get back to.”
ROCHDALE: Lillis 8, Rafferty 7, McGahey 7, Delaney 7, Hart 7, Rathbone 7, Camps 7, Henderson 9 (Done 89, 6), Andrew 7 (J Williams 77, 6), Wilbraham 7, Gillam 7 (Adshead 90+2, 5) Subs not used: McNulty, Perkins, Moore, Matheson GILLINGHAM: Holy 5, Fuller 6, Ehmer 6, Lacey 6, Garmston 6, Parrett 6 (Hanlan 83,5), Byrne 6, Reilly 6, O’Neill 5 (Nasseri 71, 5), Eaves 6, Parker 5 (List 57, 6) Subs not used: Ogilvie, Hanlan, Wilkinson, Rees, Hadler