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Beech salutes battling Rochdale

Image: Keith Hill: Hailed by his second in command

Rochdale assistant manager Chris Beech heaped praise on manager Keith Hill and the players who pulled off a 3-2 win at Leyton Orient.

Dale took the three points despite having to play for more than an hour with 10 men. "Two really good things happened at half-time," said Beech. "Keith was calm, intelligent and used his brain. The team changed its shape and we set out a five-point plan to look at how to look at what we could get out of this game. The players then went out and did it. "The players represented the manager's message as strong as it could ever be witnessed and a lot of players in our changing room are saying it's the best win they have ever been involved in. Fair play to Keith and the lads, it was an unbelievable group effort." Despite the dismissal of defender Ashley Eastham for a foul on Chris Dagnall - who missed the resulting penalty - the visitors stunned Orient with two second-half goals after they had gone in at the break trailing by 2-1. They had taken a fourth-minute lead when Matthew Done netted only to concede to Jobi McAnuff and Romain Vincelot. But they equalised three minutes after the interval through Peter Vincenti before Done notched his second following a Rochdale counter-attack. "We felt that the sending-off was harsh and we talked at half-time because we had a few issues over the standard of what we felt should have applied to the rules of the game and the support of the man in the middle, we felt, could have been structured better," added Beech. "But we talked at half-time about ourselves not being victims and the players not to be victims and to represent our standards in everything we could possibly effect. "In the second half, that's exactly what we did." Following the midweek resignation of Russell Slade, his assistant Kevin Nugent took over the reins at Orient. "After conceding the early goal, we worked hard to get back in the game which was a positive thing and despite missing a penalty, we got ourselves ahead by half-time," he said. "When you go in at half-time a goal up and playing against 10 men, you expect to come out with some buoyancy and expect to end up winning. At very worse-case scenario, you expect to pick up a point. "The words we used at half-time were concentration and decisions and unfortunately, they didn't happen when we needed them. To concede a third goal immediately after we had our own set-piece is very disappointing and normally we are so good from those situations. "They actually weren't playing with any strikers in that second half, they had nine men behind the ball and we couldn't break them down although we had so many chances." Nugent, who has been caretaker manager at Orient three times and once at Swansea, admitted that he would like to be considered for the vacant job. "I've worked here a long time, I've been with the youth team, done scouting and then the current role as head coach and the job would certainly excite me but we'll have to wait and see," he said.

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