Robert Grant headed home the opener just before the break and Michael Symes doubled the visitors' advantage with a 30-yard wonder strike midway through the second half and although Chris Dagnall gave Rochdale hope with a 91st-minute effort, Accrington held on for a deserved victory.

Hill said: "Accrington fully deserved the victory. The first half was a bit of a nonsense with respect to the windy conditions. The pitch was lovely but for some strange reason we adopted a direct approach and that sort of approach does not work for us.

"They got a goal out of nothing which isn't uncommon against Accrington, we always seem to go a goal down against them. It was a really frustrating goal to concede just on the stroke of half time because we wanted to get the players in and sort a few things out at the break.

"But you get games like that when things just don't transpire for you. Accrington were superb on the day, battled really hard and thoroughly deserved their win. They've got a little bit of something special at times with Andy Procter in midfield and Symes up front. They are a good outside bet for a play-off place."