Hill looks forward to Port Vale game

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Keith Hill at Spotland

Rochdale welcome automatic promotion hopefuls Port Vale to Spotland this Saturday looking to make it four wins on the bounce following victories over Exeter City, Fleetwood Town and Southend United.

Manager Keith Hill is in a positive mood heading into the fixture, but is warning against complacency.

“All the foundation work and the under-pinning work that we did when I first came to the club is now bearing dividends," said Hill. "Three wins on the trot makes it a happy place but we’ve got to make sure that we’re ruthless in our pursuit of points regardless of the date of the season. Winning is an every day thing and no matter what we do we’ve got to strive to be winners, but winners in the right manner with respect to our discipline and courage. I expect that everyday but now we’re also seeing that on a match day as well.

"The players are enjoying it, there’s no question about that. It has been hard work getting to where we are now and I don’t want it to be thrown away with a little bit of complacency.

"There’s no doubt about it, we’re going into a hard fixture against Port Vale. They are one of the stand out sides of the division and we saw what they can do against any side when they destroyed Burton Albion 7-1.

"Burton are another team who are looking for automatic promotion, so we have to pay them respect but we also have to back ourselves to be competitive and take them on and we will do.

"I’m looking for consistency and match day performances and now we’re getting the results. The lads have got the edge at the moment and they want to prove that we’re probably a better team than our league standing.

"This season has meandered at times and hasn’t really got on the get go. Rochdale started the season superbly then the mid-season, where you’ve got to kick on, there was a negative downward spiral, but we bounced back again and hopefully we can continue to bounce and rise up the league.

"We’re looking to get points out of this weekend’s fixture and I’ll be looking for a bit of complacency in the players today and I hope I don’t spot any.

"There’s a theory I could use the next three game to play the players I’m yet to make a decision on for next season but I don’t want to undermine the hard-work that we’ve done and I want to keep the season bubbling along. I’ve got one or two decisions to make before the weekend and again after that, but it is all in preparation for next season, no matter what decisions I make.”