KEITH Hill has backed former side Blackburn Rovers to go on and win the League One title after seeing them beat his Rochdale side 3-0.

Hill, who made 103 appearances for Rovers between 1987 and 1992, felt Rovers were at their best at Spotland as goals from Richie Smallwood, Marcus Antonsson and Danny Graham gave Tony Mowbray’s side the points.

Rovers led 1-0 at the break, but kicked on in the second half, peppering the Rochdale goal, with the hosts struggling to stem the flow of attacks.

Hill felt his side gave their all in defeat, but just came up against an on-song Rovers side.

“They are a better side than us, there’s no denying that,” Hill told his club’s official website.

“They were probably at their best and they’ve acclimatised well to League One after a couple of early season shocks.

“It was a difficult afternoon but I can’t and I won’t give up on the players because I think they’re tremendous in the pursuit of trying to do it right, but Blackburn were better than us.

“It’s difficult admitting that, because I always back myself as an underdog against anyone and I’ll back the team, but unfortunately that was the case.

“It’s something we have to accept and move on.

“The fact of the matter is, we’ve been beaten by a better side and I think they’ll be Champions by the end of the season.”

Rovers were able to bring g the likes of Danny Graham, Bradley Dack and Harry Chapman off the bench, while Peter Whittingham Ben Gladwin and Rekeem Harper were all left in reserve.

Rochdale, without star striker Ian Henderson, failed to register a shot on target, though did go close late on when Jordan Williams crashed an effort off the crossbar.

And Hill says he wasn’t too hard on his players who he felt gave everything.

He added:  “They’ve got experienced players – players who are still close to being at the top of their game if they want to be.

“They make good decisions and today they made better decisions than our players in and out of possession.

“We tried our best without any real end product and it’s a hard day when it’s like that.

“You just don’t want it to ebb away at your own commitment and your own confidence, and that’s why there can’t be too much evaluation.

“We’re missing players like Ian Henderson who is influential to the way that we play, the way that we press, and it seems a lot more difficult when we don’t have players available to press higher up the pitch.”