Hill hails resilient Rochdale

Keith Hill is confident of Rochdale's FA Cup progression after their promising display with 10-men in the 0-0 draw with Northampton.

Dale overcame the early dismissal of Ian Henderson to create the better chances and they were twice denied by the woodwork in the first round stalemate at Sixfields. Former Cobbler Henderson was dismissed after an off-the-ball incident with Northampton's Ben Tozer. But Stephen Dawson rattled the bar in the first half and Ashley Eastham's header hit the post late on. In between, Ivan Toney squandered several good chances for Cobblers who arguably missed their best opportunity of going through. Hill said: "I trust the players. We've got a great flexibility in the squad to play a variety of different ways and in different situations and I was comfortable with us losing a man. "We've got players who can get on the ball, keep it and frustrate the opposition and we knew we would get opportunities. "Half time changed the whole game. The opposition were able to put in tactics that suppressed us, they played higher up the pitch and of course the manager is going to do that." On the dismissal of Henderson, Hill added: "It was a very quick decision from the referee and I don't think he's given himself a lot of time to make the decision. "He didn't give himself thinking time and at the end of the game there was an obvious elbow by Emile Sinclair and I wasn't too sure if it was purposeful but he gave himself thinking time. "Because of that, he came up with the right decision, it probably wasn't intentional and didn't warrant a card, but he gave himself that flexibility." Assistant manager Alan Knill admitted Cobblers may have missed their best chance of getting into the second round. Knill said: "It was very disappointing for us not to have gone through. It was a missed opportunity for us, we created enough chances to win the game in the second half. "Rochdale are a very good side, they're going very well in League One. When the draw was made we knew it was going to be a tough tie and that's how it turned out. "Playing against a 10-man Rochdale side is tough enough but against 11 it will be even harder for us. But we're still in the competition and, judging by our first half performance, we were lucky to still be in it by the interval. "Rochdale are a top side and we just couldn't get close to them in the first half. But we changed things around at half time and I thought we dominated the second half, even allowing for them being down to ten men. "We should be in the second round because we had the best chances to win it in the second half. One goal would have won the game against ten men but we didn't take our chances. "We've kept a clean sheet, that's two on the trot, so that is a positive for us. We took the game to them in the second half but this was our best chance of going through."