Monday, 28 January 2013

Cheltenham Town 0 Rochdale 0

Keith Hill returned to Rochdale and immediately stopped the rot.

Manager Hill led Dale to their first promotion in 41 years when they finished third in League Two in 2010 and helped the club to a first point in four games in his first game back.

Former Cheltenham central defender Hill left Rochdale to manage Barnsley in June the following year, but took on the job again last Tuesday - one day after the sacking of John Coleman.

Cheltenham's promotion form continued to falter and they have now not won in five outings.

In the first half the Robins did not have a single attempt on goal, but central defender Keith Lowe could have netted twice after the break.

Two minutes after the break Lowe nodded narrowly wide from Billy Jones's corner and in the 66th minute keeper Jason Lillis did well to beat away his ten yard point blank shot.

Rochdale came close to going two goals ahead from the edge of the box in the space of one first half minute.

Striker Ashley Grimes sent a low curler narrowly wide from the left angle in the 16th minute and then keeper Scott Brown had to tip over the bar at full stretch from winger Bobby Grant.

Hill was happy with the response from his players after they grabbed a point in rain and high winds. He said:

"It was an horrendous evening to play a football match, but a great test of character. We've only had two days to work with the players and given them a lot of information and they've done well.

Everybody's keen and I'm relatively pleased to come away with a point. It's something to build on."

Cheltenham have not won in four league outings and boss Mark Yates admitted:

"We're not having the best of times and we're not right at the moment, but the players need to keep believing. Hopefully with two or three additions in the next week we can kick on.

We haven't really tested the keeper and that's disappointing."


My clipping from the morning paper

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