Hill looking to find the right formula

Manager Keith Hill has been reflecting on Tuesday night’s defeat away at Torquay United, as well as looking ahead to Saturday’s Sky Bet League Two encounter against Accrington Stanley at Spotland in his latest interview.

On the 2-1 defeat at Plainmoor, he said: “I wasn’t too disappointed with the performance, I wasn’t too disappointed with the players’ commitment, so nobody can rule that against us, and it was one of those games that just went against us, but it wasn’t by choice.

“The first goal is a shame really because there should be a lot of embarrassment attached to that type of goal and it’s consistent with this season. Having seen it, I don’t understand how the referee hasn’t seen a clear double handed shove on Oliver Lancashire. It should have been a free-kick.

“I’m remonstrating with Olly at half time, it’s his responsibility to mark Krystian Pearce. He was marking him and there’s no question about that and I have to apologise to Olly. I’m sincere in my apologies because he’s correct and it would have been another clean sheet at half time. We would have been in the game and we would have got the first goal, had that been the case.

“But listen, at the end of the day we got beat and I’ve got no complaints about being beaten, but when decisions like that go against you and it’s compounded with the sending off of Olly, then it’s very difficult for us.”

Olly Lancashire misses the weekend’s match against Accrington Stanley following the dismissal and Hill will be again without the injured Scott Hogan, but he says he’ll look to find the right formula as his side go up against Accy.

“At this time in the season with the injuries and the suspensions that we’ve had and we’ve got coming up, it’s about me finding the right formula, as I have done for most of the season, from the players I have available to win games.

"They’re [Accrington] a very good side and they have been all season. I think the start of the season that they had was difficult – it was new to James Beattie to be in that situation but he’s a quick learner and he’s got it right. You’ve got to praise the board of directors and the owners at Accrington for sticking with James Beattie when everyone was trying to put him under pressure, but he proves how quickly you have to learn in football and he has done. He’s got a very good squad of players at his disposal and they’re a threat to everybody, us included.”

Lee Molyneux, who was on loan at Dale earlier this season, will be one of those threats. The 25-year-old scored from two long range strikes when the sides met at Spotland last season and he netted a hat-trick against Chesterfield last weekend.

“He’s a great lad and he’s a super player. He needed to get up and running and he wasn’t getting the games for us that he wanted so it would have been unfair of me to keep him as a squad player,” said Hill. "He has gone back to Accrington, he’s comfortable, and he’s playing really well.”