Source: Bournemouth_Echo
Cherries: Howe hails Hill's miracle work
EDDIE Howe reckons outspoken counterpart Keith Hill has worked miracles at Spotland with the rival bosses preparing to lock horns again tomorrow. The emerging managerial talents earned rave reviews after leading their respective clubs out of the basement division last season. In the past, there has been no love lost between Cherries and Rochdale, with Hill last term stoking the fires when he claimed his opposite number had a squad built on money the club never had. Those comments did not go down well with the Dean Court faithful, but Howe yesterday insisted Hill deserved plenty of credit for the job he had done. Speaking ahead of Cherries' trip to Greater Manchester, Howe said: There was a good rivalry last season and the season before with Rochdale. We've had some really good battles with them. Keith Hill has done a great job there there's no denying that. What he's achieved at Rochdale is fantastic. He's outspoken but that's how he works and it can have an effect where you have a little battle between the two of you, but that's football. That makes it exciting and there's a good rivalry and we're keen to go there and get a positive result. I have a lot of respect for the job he has done there. He has worked miracles really and he's got his team playing really good football, as well. Cherries go into the clash with their old fourth tier foes, who have managed just one win in 11, sitting fifth in League One following a fine start to the campaign. But the Dean Court outfit have lost consecutive matches this week and Howe has had to deal with a number of injury problems. Doubts remain over the fitness of Michael Symes (groin), Nicholas Bignall (hip), Harry Arter and Marc Pugh (both knee). Shwan Jalal (eye socket) and Ryan Garry (shin) are sidelined, but Joe Partington is back after being ineligible for the FA Cup tie at Notts County. Another player set to miss out is Shaun Cooper (calf). Discussing Cooper, Howe said: Shaun pulled his calf and came back and pulled his other calf. Firstly, we've been trying to get the calf strain to heal and, secondly, we've got to try to find out why he's done that.