Skip to content

Hill: Promotion taking it's toll

Image: Keith Hill: Admits his side is struggling

Rochdale boss Keith Hill has warned his players to cut out the mistakes to avoid being dragged into a League One relegation dogfight.

Dale dropped into the bottom half of the table after being stung in the early stages at the ABAX Stadium. Hosts Posh struck twice inside the opening seven minutes with Harry Beautyman heading in a Michael Smith cross and Christian Burgess bundling in a Joe Newell corner. Dale did halve their arrears courtesy of a spectacular first league goal from full-back Joe Rafferty in the 25th minute, but they were unable to claw their way back onto level terms. Their task was not helped by playing the final quarter-of-an-hour with only 10 men after substitute Calvin Andrew went off nursing a knee injury after Hill had already used all three available replacements. Hill said: "Our defending was far too charitable and that is a concern for me. We are making elementary individual mistakes and giving ourselves a mountain to climb. "Joe struck what deserved to be a match-winning goal, but earlier mistakes meant that wasn't the case. "We showed great spirit in the second half, but that's not really what I want to be talking about. I want us to be putting in performances and winning football matches. "I work with these players week in, week out and the impact of playing in League One is catching up with them psychologically. "We had 10 players aged 21 or under in our squad, but they have to be accountable and disciplined enough to see through the job on a Saturday. "We always knew we would face a fight to stay in League One this season." While Dale are looking over their shoulders, Peterborough have now closed to within two points of the play-off places. Posh boss Darren Ferguson has boosted his squad with the capture of local lad David Norris, who was released by Leeds last month and made his debut as a second-half substitute on Saturday. Ferguson also welcomed back attacker Jon Taylor from a three-month injury lay-off and he twice went close to a late clincher. Ferguson said: "It was a very similar game to last Tuesday against Gillingham. The difference was that we took our chances and went on to win the game. "Rochdale hit a hell of a strike to reduce the lead, but I felt we were always pretty comfortable. "We could probably have managed the closing stages a bit better after Rochdale had gone down to 10 men, but the main thing is three points." On the arrival of Norris, the Posh boss added: "He is a player with huge experience who has captained many of his previous clubs and he will plenty to what is a very young squad."

Around Sky