Keith Hill speaks about his plans for Dale

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Keith Hill back at Spotland

Keith Hill without question has been the most successful manager in Rochdale's history, leading Dale to promotion out of the bottom flight for only the second time ever and carrying that success on with a creditable finish the following season before understandably leaving when offered the opportunity to manage a Championship side.

This morning, before his first training session back at Rochdale, Hill took time out to speak to Rochdale Online about what the future holds for the club in his hands.

He said: "The club is currently experiencing a downward spiral and it is important we address that and arrest it immediately.

"There is no reason why promotion can't be achieved again but it has to be recognised this is a different team and there are areas of improvement needed - and the transfer window is open for another week yet.

"We need to build again and to lay the right foundations and I am confident we can do so. I am working with people in Chris Dunphy and Colin Garlick who are familiar with me and who understand I have certain demands and they are happy with that."

Asked what persuaded him to return to the club, Hill said: "Rochdale is and always will be close to my heart. It was an easy decision, an emotional one, we didn't talk long about contracts, the formalities were over very quickly, I wanted to come back and the club wanted me back."

Hill's time at Barnsley obviously wasn't the success he wanted it to be but he explained that he has learnt a lot from his experiences over the past 18 months: "If you don't learn from experience then there is no point getting out of bed in the morning," he said.

And of the rest of this season Hill was careful not to make any rash promises but is clearly relishing the challenge of changing Dale's poor run of form and attempting to climb the table into a play-off place: "The season is still alive. We have 18 games to play and that's a lot of points we can gain. No promises but we will be doing our best."