Dale goalkeeper Lee, on loan from Macclesfield, raced off his line to meet Neil Wainwright's stoppage-time free-kick, but made a hash of his attempted gather and Ian Miller looped a header into the empty net.

Miller's last-gasp effort came after Dale striker Chris Dagnall had cancelled out Jason Kennedy's stunning first-half opener.

The Quakers head to Spotland for the second leg next weekend as favourites to reach the final at Wembley later this month.

Hill, however, insists the tie is still wide open and jumped to the defence of Lee.

"I'm not despondent in any way, shape or form - it's still a tight game," Hill said.

"It was a definite mistake by Tommy, but he's done really well for us since he's been on loan from Macclesfield.

"He's [Miller] scored, so it's job done. There's not an awful lot in it. One goal isn't much of a margin.

"To go to our place 2-1 down, I'm still encouraged. We're more than capable of scoring goals at our place."

Dagnall had already been denied by the crossbar before Kennedy broke the deadlock in the 28th minute with a superb strike.

The on-loan Middlesbrough midfielder flicked Ben Parker's punted clearance inside his marker with his first touch and stroked the ball effortlessly over Lee from the top-left corner of the area with his second.

With 20 minutes remaining Dagnall, who suffered play-off heartbreak with Tranmere, got the goal his efforts deserved despite his 20-yard strike taking a huge deflection to beat goalkeeper David Stockdale.

The stage was set for substitute Miller to round off the scoring deep into added time, to the delight of Quakers boss Dave Penney.

"I think we deserved to win really," said Penney, who guided Doncaster to promotion to the Football League via the play-offs in 2003.

"I think we were the better side on the whole, especially in the first half when we could have scored a couple more goals.

"It was a great goal from Jason which kept us going. We had the momentum them and could have probably got another one or two before getting pegged back and losing a couple or three through injuries.

"We always knew set-pieces were going to be important today. We worked on a lot this week in training and we ended up getting a goal from one as well."

Despite being understandably delighted with the manner of the victory, Penney was quick to warn his players that they are by no means assured of a potentially money-spinning trip to Wembley.

"There's still a long, long way to go," Penney added.

"Obviously they'll fancy their chances at their place, but it's a great result for us and gives us something to work on, to build on and we can to Spotland now and try and get another result.

"Rochdale are a good footballing side, they get it down, they get it wide, they work hard and they cause you problems. I didn't see anything today that I didn't know what was coming."