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Three years of Hill
Three years of Hill
Wednesday, 16th Dec 2009 21:36

Wednesday is the third anniversary of Keith Hill's time as manager at Spotland. We look back on those three years, paying tribute to our manager.

The 16th December did not start off a good day for Dale supporters. It was very much the morning after the night before, and even those teetotallers amongst the Dale support were waking up with a hangover after another wretched performance left us very much facing a relegation battle. The latest side to brush us aside was Hartlepool, and even our own manager cited the performance as being one of a side playing out the end of the season, with nothing left to play for.

That Dale stood in 22nd position, with just twenty points from their 22 games that season up until that point with both sides below us in the table having a game in hand on Dale.  It was one dismal performance too far, and on that Saturday morning it was announced that Steve Parkin had been sacked. The footnote to that sacking story was the news that youth team boss Keith Hill had been given caretaker responsibility.

And who'd have thought that one of the most significant moment in our club's history could be announced in such inauspicious circumstances, wrapped up in a tiny paragraph at the end. Of course, Hilly's position as caretaker manager was far from some sort of masterstroke by Chairman Chris Dunphy. Hilly was pretty much the only one with any coaching ability left at the club following the dismissal of Parkin and his assistant Ford.

That caretaker role could have been over before it had even begun. Defeat to MK Dons in Hill's first game as a manager courtesy of a Nathan Stanton own goal saw us go within three points of bottom place, and when we trailed to Wrexham 2-0 on Boxing Day, the odds on Hill getting the job on a permanent basis must have been about 1,000,000-1.

But a spirited comeback to snatch a 2-2 draw was followed up by the seemingly impossible - back to back 4-0 wins, and all of a sudden this side of free transfers and no hopers looked to have something about them. And from out of nowhere, Keith Hill had announced himself as a real contender for the job. In fairness, Dunphy was left with no choice in the matter. How could he look elsewhere to the likes of Ritchie or Horton, when right on his doorstep he had someone who had shown himself capable of getting this side to perform to a standard that had looked alien to us since the departure of Holt some eighteen months previous?

Hill's permanent appointment was coupled with the announcement that David Flitcroft had almost secretly been operating at the club in a coaching position alongside Hill in his caretaker role. There were sceptics at the time, those accusing the club of going for the cheapest option yet again, those accusing Hill of bringing in his best mate, pointing out a lack of experience amongst the two, and even crueller those citing the quality of the two as players as reasons why as not to appoint them.

Those that had been at the two previous Dale games, and left with the biggest grins seen at Dale games in some time were quick to defend the decision to retain Hill and Flicker until the end of the season.

We have never, ever looked back.

That first season from January onwards will go down as one of my favourites as a Dale supporter. From a relegation battle on the cards at the turn of the year, we finished the season with automatic promotion form for Hill's time in charge, with even a hint of Play Off football at one time.

But that hint of a Play Off was merely incidental. Freed from the shackles of each season being a question of whether the long wait for promotion could be achieved, we had fantastic football for the sake of fantastic football. No cares at all about league tables, just footballing adventure after footballing adventure every Saturday afternoon. The turnaround was instantaneous, and a massive feelgood factor descended over Spotland.

Little old Rochdale were turning up against sides with intentions of higher things and were left in a crumpled heap. MK Dons, Accrington and Macclesfield all received pastings at Spotland, but it was the 7-2 demolition of Stockport which stood out - a lesson given in effective, passing football, clinical finishing and a hunger we'd only ever seen in opposition sides.

But not quite of the same scoreline, for me the biggest result of the season was the 2-0 over Hartlepool. With almost 3000 coming from the North East, that season's best side came head to head with the best side in the second half of the season, with Dale coming out comfortable winners. A marker had been put down.

The second season carried a whole added weight of expectation. Understandable thinking considered what Dale could achieve if they could match the January to May form over the course of a full season. We were not to be disappointed.

It was another season full of great memories. The hammerings on the road of Accrington, Rotherham, Chester and Mansfield suggested that we could score four goals in every away game to such an extent that a 3-0 away win would carry a tinge of disappointment.

We showed we could do it the hard way on our away travels too with the nervy 1-0 ten man victory at MK Dons, and 4-3 victories against Shrewsbury and Chesterfield.

But the main memory from that year was one that will stay with us to our dying day. That second leg against Darlington in the Play Offs when we came back from an aggregate 3-1 deficit in front of a capacity Spotland crowd to take the game to penalties through a David Perkins screamer.

I must have watched the penalties from that day over a hundred times by now, whether it be through Sky Plus or You Tube, and I'll be honest enough to admit I still get the nerves now. Possibly the most nervous time I've known as a Dale supporter, but on the touch line, Keith Hill seemed as calm as anybody  even performing some sort of foot tapping dance to wind up his players.

Of course, some bloke called Jason Kennedy saw his penalty saved, and then Muirhead stepped up and the rest is history. That hush before his spot kick still sends shivers down the spine before the most joyous scenes ever witnessed in the modern era at Spotland. Rumour has it amongst those celebrating on the pitch was a sixteen year old lad called Craig Dawson.

Of course, the final was a game too far, and there remains a sour taste in the mouth regarding the absence of David Perkins through suspension and the debts racked up by County financing their season which came back to bite them on the backside last season.

There are some amongst our support who look upon Hill's second full season in charge as being one of disappointment. That despite the fact that we made the Play Offs for a second successive season.

It was a season which again carried many high points, and even automatic promotion looked to be on the cards for a while, especially after Dale went second with a last minute win away at Wycombe with just eight games to go but Dale stumbled their way through the last few games, and we couldn't give it one last push in the Play Offs, with our season coming to a close in deepest, darkest Kent on a Sunday night.

Perhaps conscious of the way we finished the 2008-9 season, Keith Hill seemed to be facing questions from the support base for perhaps the first time in his reign as manager. There were few if any at all suggesting that he wasn't the man for the job, but there were murmurings that our perceived weaknesses weren't being addressed with a lack of finances cited as the main reason.

The strong defender wanted at the back had not been signed, and the lack of a big man up front still remained a worry. Many had written the season off after a Summer in which we'd signed more goalkeepers than outfield players. This was not a side that looked to have been improved over the Summer months, and Hill faced an even bigger challenge when after just one game, we sold our top scorer. An impossible task had somehow been made even more difficult overnight.

And so three and a half months on, we sit comfortably at the top of the league.

And deservedly so, after we've been treated to the most glorious performances from a side in which Tom Kennedy is considered an old head at 25. We've repeated over and over in match reports (probably due to a lack of journalistic acumen on our part) that as Dale supporters, we have never had it as good as we're having right now.

Every one of the rules in the book is being torn up. You don't win anything with kids, you can't football your way to success in the basement division and perhaps crucially, little old Rochdale will always remain little old Rochdale.

Be in no doubt at all, these are the glory days of supporting this side, and even those old enough to remember the promotion season from 1969 could not claim for one moment that this isn't a patch on that season of glory, and it is impossible to let that slip without paying tribute to our management team of Hill and Flitcroft.

That little old Rochdale that they took over was a Rochdale facing relegation in the face. The Rochdale they have crafted has become one which is feared throughout the division to such an extent that game after game in recent weeks has seen the opposition manager trot out the excellence of our side as the opening line in his defence of his side's defence.

The philosophy looks to be so simple at times. Bring players to the club and make them better players. Take players, who have perhaps lost their way a little or have a point to prove, and give them that platform to do their stuff. If you're good enough, you're old enough. And probably too old if you're 26 or more.

And from a footballing point of view, it seems equally simple. Keep the ball on the floor, stick it out wide and let the wingers do their job. But that simplicity has not been achieved without a phenomenal amount of hours of graft put in behind the scenes, on the training grounds, working with individual players, changing the mentality League Two players.

Three years ago, sports science was simply two different subjects you used to do at school, conditioning was something the more effeminate lads did to their hair and nutrition was two words rather than one. League Two we may be, but that shouldn't mean that we adopt a League Two mentality. "A Premier League team in the making" may have been mocked, but there was much reality behind those words.

Of course, like with any manager there has been criticisms. Hill was criticised for sticking with Glenn Murray for so long when he wasn't scoring, he was slated for his persistence of playing Joe Thompson, he was having to put his faith in a teenage defender plucked from non league football etc. The criticisms have never lasted too long.

In achieving three years in charge, there are just seventeen managers in charge of their club longer than Keith Hill has, and to put it into some sort of local context, there's only been one Dale manager to have a longer than three years in charge at Spotland since the days of Dick Connor almost forty years ago. Perhaps remaining in charge here is as much of an achievement as anything else is.

In summary, it's been three years spent with massive grins on our faces. Three years of fantastic football, three years spent challenging at the right end of the division, three years of hope, three years of immense pride, and three years of muttering at 5pm every Saturday about how we've "footballed them to death".

And we'll leave you with this. Spend about ten minutes thinking about your ten favourite moments from all your time watching Dale. I'll be very, very surprised if over half of them hadn't come in the past three years regardless of how many years you've been watching Dale for. Thanks Keith.

Photo: Action Images



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