Rochdale away at Southend United on Saturday

Rochdale manager Keith Hill

A goalless draw at home to local rivals Bury last weekend saw Dale pick up their second point of the season and keep a clean sheet, but manager Keith Hill will be hoping Dale can record a much needed first win of the season at Southend on Saturday and climb out of the bottom four.

Dale will be able to call on two transfer deadline day signings, Donervon Daniels and Jordan Williams, who joined on loan from Wigan and Liverpool respectively.

However, it will be a tough task against a Southend side that has lost only once in four games, having won once, drawn the last two, and currently sitting seven places above Dale in the table.

Southend has traditionally been a difficult ground for Dale and Hill said: “Southend away has been unkind to us in the past but we are going there full of confidence and we are going there with a squad that is capable of representing us on a match day, so let us just go there and try to win a football match.

Injury and illness continues to be a problem and Hill added: “Having eight players missing from our squad put us at stretching point but we have got a 42 game season left and that is what we should be looking at.”

However, Southend manager Phil Brown also has major concerns going into Saturday’s game with a number of first team players out through injury.