Football: Dale manager Hill says players will approach the Bristol Rovers match with the right mindset

Rochdale manager Keith Hill

Rochdale manager Keith Hill says the Dale players will approach Saturday's match against Bristol Rovers with the right mindset despite not winning in the last six games.

Hill said: "You’ve got to play the opponent on any given match day, regardless of the previous results that they’ve had.

“There will be times when we’ll be playing against teams that have won six on the bounce and we’ll also go into those games with the same mind set of trying to win that football match and expecting to win that football match.

“That’s the highs and lows, whether you’re playing a football match or managing a football match, and it’s the same for Clarkey [Darrell Clarke, Bristol Rovers Manager]. He’ll come off the back of Tuesday’s defeat with probably a massive low but two weeks previously they were 6-0 winners over Northampton so that’s a massive high, and that’s football for you. As a manager, you’ve got to try and find a middle ground.”

Bristol Rovers sit mid table with six wins and eight losses from 14 games, and two of those losses have come in the past week, at home against Oxford and then a midweek 4-0 drubbing at table-topping Shrewsbury.

Rovers manager Darrell Clarke says the team let supporters down in the heavy defeat against Shrewsbury and sees the Rochdale game as "an opportunity to bounce back quickly".

He said: "It is important the players don't play with any fear and up their performance."

The last time the two sides met, in February, the result was a goalless draw at the Crown Oil Arena.