Keith Hill - Not Fair

After watching his team lose against Bristol Rovers on Saturday, Rochdale boss Keith Hill was left fuming about the performance of referee Craig Pawson and, in particular, the young whistler’s decision to award a penalty on the stroke of half time for the home side.


To be fair to Hill, while you could feel his frustration, he never lost the plot nor was he abusive in any way and so personally I think it would be a travesty if he were to end up with a fine. However, I have to say that I personally saw nothing wrong with the decision and couldn’t really find fault with the referee’s display that afternoon.

Rochdale probably deserved more from the game, but then again, Rovers probably deserved more from their game against Swindon the previous Monday evening. Isn’t that just football for you? The full transcript of Hill’s post match reaction follows. He said:

“I don’t think we deserved to lose the game. I think the penalty decision before half-time changed the whole complexion of the game. You know the whole structure in the second half changed because of the penalty award. I thought our game plan was working. We were causing the opposition problems and the penalty decision, or the conversion of the penalty, relived the pressure on the opposition so that decision changed the course of the game from our aspect and from their aspect.

I’m disappointed with that decision. I’m not too sure whether it’s a penalty or not, but I’m relatively disappointed with the referring standards and the referring display today for the official. I just feel as though the FA and the Referee’s Association want you to respect officials, but I can’t respect officials when they produce sub-standard performances.

Their performances will have a bearing on my future not his future and I won’t accept that as a display today as being a polished display. I just felt as though it was sub-standard and rather favoured Bristol Rovers.

The linesman didn’t give the penalty and he was in a favourable position, but the linesman gave a lot in that game in respect of fouls, free kicks, etc., but they fail to award the penalty when the referee sees it as a penalty. It might well have been a penalty, but for me the referee wasn’t in a great position to see it and it changed the whole complexion of the game and the strategy of the opposition in the second half as we saw. We shut the door. They kept it very solid at the back and tried to pinch a goal on the counter-attack which they did and I applaud the opposition for the way they played in the second half, but it was a result of a penalty decision that was really debatable.

I’m not disappointed with my team or my players. I’m disappointed with the result and the refereeing standard, but not disappointed with the way we played and the players. The only disappointment today was the result.

With the referee, I’ll phone David Ellison (I think he meant David Elleray, but there’s a time when and when not to interrupt someone) or he’ll probably call me with respect to my comments about the referee, but it was a sub-standard performance in a professional industry. It’s not bitter or sour grapes, but the lion’s share of decisions that were made favoured Bristol Rovers and the penalty decision favoured Bristol Rovers. If it wasn’t awarded by the linesman who was in a far better position to either award or deny it being a penalty. He didn’t move or make any gesture towards the referee. The referee, who was blind-sided to the incident, made the decision.”

As far as life in League One is concerned, Hill brightened up and was honest in his assessment when he said:

“I’m pleased with the progress that we’re making and the way that we’re playing. I’m pleased with the points we’ve got on the board. I’m obviously not pleased with the sequence of the last three results, but that has been a reality check for me because I’ve been a little too demanding of the players because we’ve had such a good start. So we’ve gone back to our mantra of ‘let’s see’ instead of ‘let’s expect to win’. It’s a balancing act for me. I’ve got ambitions for the players and the football club, but it’s got to be balanced with an education of League One football. We’re relatively inexperienced - myself as a manger in League One and the players are as well. We haven’t recruited too many players that have got League One experience and it can be key. But we’re educating ourselves quite well. We’re not getting drastically beaten week-in, week-out by any opposition. We’re giving ourselves an opportunity to win games and compete in games and that’ll be our strategy for the remainder of the season.

I’m really pleased with the players and there’s got to be patience with these players as they educate themselves to this league and that patience has got to come from me and my demands has got to be slightly lowered on these players that we’ve got.

Hill had special words of praise for striker Chris O’Grady who battled away against Rovers’ central defensive partnership of Byron Anthony and Danny Coles – both of who were excellent themselves - and he said:

“He’s an excellent player and integral to our development and he’s a great target man. When he plays like that he’s a handful for any defender. The first half strategy was working to perfection in my eyes. I’ve got to clear my vision of the result and see the performances of the players and see what progress we’re actually making as a football club.”

More quotes from Paul Trollope and Chris Lines to follow later (or tomorrow if I get bogged down with work!)

Bristol Rovers 2 Rochdale 1 - Moron

There’s no pleasing some people.

It was a real pleasure watching Chris Lines knock in what turned out to be the winning goal – if only because an few idiot six rows behind me spent the full ninety minute berating the midfielder for no good reason. Thus, this so-called fan ended up looking like the moron he had sounded like all afternoon.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football

I have never understood why fans think that slagging off the players they have paid to ‘support’ is going to do the player or the team any good, but fortunately for the rest of the Gasheads, Lines is the type of guy who responds in the right way. His first league goal of the season turned out to be the winner.

The Bristol-born midfielder is arguably the best technical player Rovers have and at some point in the next couple of seasons will move to a bigger club. In the meantime, I'd suggest that the fans make the most of his talents and if they hear idiots slagging him off, they should tell them to pipe down.

He's a decent lad who appeared as uncomfortable taking questions from a bunch of middle-aged hacks as he looks comfortable on the ball.

Lines, 24, needed to show the discipline asked of his manager, Paul Trollope, and said:

“People are entitled to their opinion, but to be honest the more they moan, the more likely I am to try and get to the other end and score a goal. that’s pretty much what’s happened today. I’ve just got to aim for double figures again as I did last year and that would be pretty good for a central midfielder.

I set high standards last season and I’m quite happy to try and live up to that. Sometimes I have to be disciplined though because we can’t all bomb forward. I don’t like sitting back, but sometimes you have to do that for the team and perhaps people don’t quite see that.”

I enjoy visiting the Mem – not least because of the passion and loyalty of their supporters – but prats like the ones behind me acting like drunk five year olds must spoil the experience for every other fan who can hear them.

Dale striker Chris O’Grady typified his side’s have-a-go mentality. The northerners could well have taken the step up from the bottom flight in the summer and tried either a kick-an-rush style or even a kick-the-opposition style, but they have continued to try and play football.

Even die-hard Rovers fans couldn’t have begrudged them a point on their first half performance alone. Rochdale hit the woodwork twice in the game and O’Grady said:

“Since we came up from League Two we’ve found that we’re up against a lot more sides who like to play good football and that suits us. If we carry on playing the way we are we’ll win more games than we lose.”

More quotes from the game on tomorrow’s blog from Paul Trollope, Chris Lines and Rochdale boss Keith Hill.