A football thief

After two near misses in the League Two Play-Offs Rochdale Manager, Keith Hill, will be hoping his year-long study for the UEFA Pro Licence will make the difference in his efforts to take his team out of the Football League’s bottom division for only the second time in their history.

Hill replaced Steve Parkin as manager and led Rochdale to a top ten finish in his first season. He built on that success the following season by supervising the collection of a record points haul, a fifth-place finish and a place in the Play-Off final where they were eventually beaten by Stockport County.

Not to be perturbed, Hill continued his push for promotion last season, but narrowly lost out to Gillingham in the Play-Off semi-final. Now he has booked himself a spot on the Pro Licence with a view to furthering his own education and the Dale’s chances of a League One berth.

"It has been absolutely superb," he said of the course so far.

"There’s a lot of knowledge and experience on the course, both the coaches who are taking the Pro Licence and the tutors as well and it’s great to learn from your peers.

"I began my badges when I was 27 and I got the bug. It made me a better player, certainly understanding more about the tactical side of the game, and I tried to put that to good effect on the pitch."

His bug for coaching has led him to the top qualification in the game and along with 16 other coaches and managers he spent his first week of the course listening to expert speakers in several different fields – finance, employment law and management of professionals. He also had to plan and prepare for a fictitious match and Hill completed this group exercise with Gus Poyet and Bobby Davison.

"You’ve got to be flexible," Hill said of this match preparation. "When you’re planning a session as a group of three there are a lot of opinions, but you’ve got to find a common ground. It’s a similar situation that you’d face at your club. Managers seek information and opinion from all of their staff but at the end of the day, it’s one man’s decision.

"I’ve already got a few things that I’d like to take back to Rochdale next season, but to be perfectly honest, you’ve got to take some time to digest a lot of that information, analyse it and then pick parts out that you can use on the training ground.

"We’re all thieves of football in a way, picking bits and pieces out from different coaches along the way, but I suppose we’re only really judged on the amount of wins we get."

So, what are Hill’s hopes for the coming season?

"It’s very difficult to maintain our consistency over a long period like we have done and we just fell a little bit short on two occasions. Two years ago we finished with 80 points and that tally would have got us promoted last season, so there are no guarantees in football.

"One thing we can guarantee our fans though is that we’ll be organised and competitive and I do expect us to win football matches, otherwise I wouldn’t be managing.

"Whatever happens, I know that taking this course will make me a better manager and a better coach. But whether I'm still in a job by the time I finish the Pro Licence will be down to the results I get at Rochdale."