Hill relishing Dale run-in

Keith Hill is looking forward to the last nine matches after seeing Rochdale go top of League Two with a 3-0 win at Northampton.

Dale striker Ian Henderson did not enjoy the best of times at Sixfields earlier in his career, but returned to play a big part for Hill's men, who were reduced to 10 men for the final 35 minutes following Matty Lund's dismissal. Henderson notched his 10th goal of the season early on and set up Joe Bunney for the crucial third goal after Lund had been sent off for over-celebrating his strike that had doubled Dale's advantage in the second half. Hill said: "We were very good. Northampton have been good lately and (Cobblers manager) Chris Wilder has done an excellent job here because he's got them in a position where they have got a very good chance of surviving. "I think they'd won three and drawn three before this game and maybe we took them by surprise a little bit. "The pitch was superb and that helped us, it was the perfect night for us really. "We dominated chances on the counter-attack and that is very important, but we did that because we've got good players at the club. "I'm not on my third squad here, I'm on my first squad and I haven't gone to the chairman or the board of directors and asked them for loads of extra money. "I trust the players that I've got at the football club and it's just another game. "We've got nine games left and I'm looking forward to them."