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Keith Hill says heading back to Rochdale will not be an emotional occasion.
The Wanderers boss refuses to feel sentimental as he goes back to the club he managed for a decade, spread over two spells and some 564 games in the dugout.
Hill found himself out of work in March when he was surprisingly sacked at Spotland with the club sitting 22nd in the League One table.
He cheered from the press box last week as Rochdale pushed Manchester United all the way in the Carabao Cup, losing only on penalties, but won’t be treating tonight’s Leasing.com Trophy clash any differently.
“It’s just another game,” he told The Bolton News. “Take the emotion out of it.
“They didn’t want me, so I left. But I did enjoy supporting them on Wednesday night at Old Trafford.
“They are a team that will be fixed in my heart forever but the ruthless nature of the game is that my real love now, my footballing wife, is Bolton Wanderers.
“I am very good as taking the emotion out of decision-making, it’s black and white. I can be quite cold as well as warm.
“I can move on very quickly and I think you should be able to as well. Life is for living, so it won’t be difficult for me to go back on a Tuesday night whatsoever.”
Hill has sat in the away dugout before at Rochdale. As Barnsley boss in 2012 he knocked his former club out of the FA Cup in a seven-goal thriller, which got underway with a first professional goal for a certain John Stones.
The team that matched United stride for stride was effectively the same one Hill bequeathed to his successor Brian Barry-Murphy – and a group to which he feels indebted.
“There were only two players on that pitch who I didn’t give a Rochdale debut – the goalkeeper and the left-back,” he said. “Everyone else I gave them a debut as a Rochdale player.
“They are players who helped me get this opportunity at Bolton Wanderers.
“Equally, I hope I helped those players establish themselves and also to establish Rochdale as a League One football club, which it has never ever been in its history.
“They are debt free and the stadium is owned. That gives me an enormous sense of pride.”
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The Wanderers boss refuses to feel sentimental as he goes back to the club he managed for a decade, spread over two spells and some 564 games in the dugout.
Hill found himself out of work in March when he was surprisingly sacked at Spotland with the club sitting 22nd in the League One table.
He cheered from the press box last week as Rochdale pushed Manchester United all the way in the Carabao Cup, losing only on penalties, but won’t be treating tonight’s Leasing.com Trophy clash any differently.
“It’s just another game,” he told The Bolton News. “Take the emotion out of it.
“They didn’t want me, so I left. But I did enjoy supporting them on Wednesday night at Old Trafford.
“They are a team that will be fixed in my heart forever but the ruthless nature of the game is that my real love now, my footballing wife, is Bolton Wanderers.
“I am very good as taking the emotion out of decision-making, it’s black and white. I can be quite cold as well as warm.
“I can move on very quickly and I think you should be able to as well. Life is for living, so it won’t be difficult for me to go back on a Tuesday night whatsoever.”
Hill has sat in the away dugout before at Rochdale. As Barnsley boss in 2012 he knocked his former club out of the FA Cup in a seven-goal thriller, which got underway with a first professional goal for a certain John Stones.
The team that matched United stride for stride was effectively the same one Hill bequeathed to his successor Brian Barry-Murphy – and a group to which he feels indebted.
“There were only two players on that pitch who I didn’t give a Rochdale debut – the goalkeeper and the left-back,” he said. “Everyone else I gave them a debut as a Rochdale player.
“They are players who helped me get this opportunity at Bolton Wanderers.
“Equally, I hope I helped those players establish themselves and also to establish Rochdale as a League One football club, which it has never ever been in its history.
“They are debt free and the stadium is owned. That gives me an enormous sense of pride.”
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