We're the Millers - Rotherham United FC

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MILLERS' POOR FORM CONTINUES
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Rotherham United's poor form since the turn of the year has continued, with the Millers now on a run of only 1 win in their last 6 league games

A 2-2 draw with Aston Villa at the start of March has been seen as symptomatic of Rotherham's problems since the new year, with the Millers squandering a 2 goal lead in the second half, with Villa left-back Jordon Amavi bagging a 94th minute equaliser

This was followed by a 1-0 home defeat to Brighton via a Sam Baldock penalty as Millers' frustrations continued to grow as hopes of a playoff place continue to dwindle following Rotherham's struggles. This continued with a 1-1 draw at Wolves as the Millers squandered a lead in the last ten minutes

There are however hopes back at the New York Stadium following an encouraging 2-1 win away at QPR with winger Danny Ward bagging a brace to end the month
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1st of May 2017April was a whole lot kinder to us than February and March as we picked up 16 points from a possible 21, let's see where we got them shall we?

We kicked off the month on a high following the QPR result and that high continued as comfortably dispatched of Fulham 2-0 at home through an own goal by Ragnar Sigurdsson and a goal from Jon Taylor. That was followed up by an exciting first half and boring second half in a Yorkshire derby against Sheffield Wednesday as we drew 1-1 with the playoff-chasing Owls

Carlton Morris and Danny Ward combined at the DW Stadium to see off Wigan 2-0 as we really started to gather some steam heading into the run in, this was perpetuated further by a 1-0 win over Birmingham courtesy of a Lee Evans goal

We were soon brought back down to earth however as two goals in the last ten minutes gave Reading all three points at the Madejski Stadium in a match we really should have won that really dented our playoff bid. Fortunately the squad showed some great character (Bit of a Rogers moment there) as we bounced back with a 2-1 win over Ipswich at the New York Stadium with Joel Ekstrand and the wonderful Jon Taylor striking within minutes to give us a 2-0 lead, there goal was a Brett Pitman consolation

Then, the big one, away to Preston North End. Win and our playoff hopes stay alive and Preston go down, lose Preston live to fight another day and its one **** of a struggle for us to reach the playoffs.

We started quickly as we bombarded Preston and eventually gained the lead in only the 2nd minute via loanee Carlton Morris, however we took our foot off the gas and Aiden McGeady took advantage of some poor defending and even worse goalkeeping to equalise just after half time. Fortunately we dug deep and regained our lead through Kwesi Appiah's 7th league goal of the season. We held on for an important win. Happy days.
 
THE RUN IN
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Its all to play for at the top of the Championship as three teams battle it out for the one remaining playoff spot

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KEY FIXTURES
Huddersfield Town vs Cardiff City
Rotherham United vs Derby County

KICK-OFF
27th Minute-Kasey Palmer scores for Huddersfield! 1-0!
38th Minute-Its whipped into the box for KWESI APPIAH!!!!! 1-0 to Rotherham!

HALF-TIME
Huddersfield Town 1-0 Cardiff City
Rotherham United 1-0 Derby County
Rotherham United are in the playoffs as it stands!

SECOND-HALF
69th Minute-Michael Hefele has been sent off for Huddersfield Town!
71st Minute-Harry Bunn scores a second for Huddersfield! They've done their bit!
89th Minute-Nahki Wells scores for Huddersfield! 3-0 to the Terriers, but is it enough?

FULL-TIME
Huddersfield Town 3-0 Cardiff City
Rotherham United 1-0 Derby County
Rotherham United are in the playoffs!
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SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFFS
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I don't know how, but we made the playoffs, sneaking into 6th place a spectacular end to the season. We've got Reading, don't expect promotion

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF SEMI FINAL FIRST LEG
Rotherham United 1-2 Reading
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans, Doughty (Cain 81), Taylor, Ward, Appiah (Newell 81)
Bollocks. We had to win this to have any chance and we've fallen at the first hurdle. In truth we were marginally the better side but couldn't finish our chances whilst Reading's superior quality paid dividends

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF SEMI FINAL SECOND LEG
Reading 2-0 Rotherham United
Reading win 4-1 on aggregate
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans, Doughty (Ward 61), Taylor, Newell, Morris (Clarke-Harris 61)
That's it folks. It was a brave performance but Reading were just too good in the end, we had a brief moment of hope as Joel Ekstrand bundled in an equaliser but it was ruled out for offside. Still quite proud of the season though​
 
1st of July 2017What a season that was! To say that wasn't on the cards would be something of an understatement as we shocked all the pundits and steamed into the playoffs, only to lose out to third placed Reading who lost to Wolves in the final

We were excellent, with all the players doing their bit from goalscorer Carlton Morris to goalmaker Jon Taylor with a variety of tactics and players deployed as we achieved Rotherham's highest league finish since 1955
This was even more spectacular when you realise we had one of the lowest salaries per annum in the division, finishing above teams who spend millions more on players than we do who spent more in one summer than we have in our entire existence

Unfortunately, that leaves us with a problem. We're not strong enough financially to keep this up, this is shown by the fact that we've been given a budget of £0 for the upcoming summer, cheers board. Still, we keep fighting, Stephen Kelly, Kirk Broadfoot and Kelvin Wilson are all set for release which will give us £20,000 to play with in the wage budget, add a couple of sales and we should be able to make some moves in the transfer market
We need a goalscorer, that was where we struggled last season, the amount chances Kwesi Appiah et al missed last season was scandalous, with that in mind I've constructed a mini shortlist of Tom Bradshaw. Barnsley went down last season and he's handed in a transfer request, my kind of transfer

We also need some depth, on the wings mainly, the midfield is fine, we need backup on the wings and at full-back but other than that, we're set.

We've also got some good youngsters in Louis Ekangamene, Will McDonald and Lee McDonnell, the future at Rotherham is bright

Roll on 2018!
 
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TRIO LEAVE NEW YORK STADIUM

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[FONT=&quot]Rotherham United have today announced the departure of three players for a total of £3.4m as the Millers continue their "sell to buy" policy[/FONT]


The Millers, who have been quite in the window so far, are said to be prepared to re-invest the money in the playing staff amid fears amongst fans that this will leave the Millers threadbare


First to go was Will Vaulks, who joined Inverness for £250,000


Vaulks, 23, never really impressed at the New York Stadium, making just 10 league appearances after joining from Falkirk for an undisclosed fee


The central midfielder is said to be welcoming a return to Scotland where he made 108 league appearances over three seasons

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Second to leave the Millers was Anthony Forde, who's joined Plymouth Argyle in a deal worth £190,000


Forde, like Vaulks, never really made an impression at Rotherham making just 9 league appearances for the Yorkshire side after joining from Walsall for an undisclosed fee



The 23 year old Irishman is returning to League 1, where he made appearances for Wolves, Scunthorpe and Walsall

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Last to leave was Tom Thorpe, who's joined Huddersfield Town for a fee of £3m



Thorpe, who spent last season on loan at Bolton, was said to be a part of Hawkins' plans for the upcoming season but the Welshman saw Huddersfield's offer as too good to turn down



Thorpe made only 7 league appearances for the Millers but the 24 year old has now overtaken Richard Smallwood as Rotherham United's record sale

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MILLERS OPERATING ON THE CHEAP
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Despite bringing in almost £3.5m in player sales this summer Rotherham United are continuing to operate on the cheap as manager Matthew Hawkins attempts to build a side capable of challenging for promotion to the Premier League

Despite the Welshman's lofty ambitions, his signings have been less than ambitious with the four players who've joined so far totalling a transfer spend of £0

First to join the Millers was George Legg, who's joined on a free transfer to offer backup to goalkeeper Lee Camp following Lewis Price's lone move to Oxford

Legg, 21, came through the Reading academy but never appeared for the Royals, instead only playing for Hungerford Town in the National League South, playing 28 games and keeping 8 clean sheets
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Next up is a player with a far more recognisable name in Harry Wilson

The 20 year old Wales international has joined the Millers on loan from Liverpool, with a view to making the deal a permanent one for £300,000 and many at the club are hoping to make that happen with Wales' youngest ever player eager to impress

The winger spent last year on loan at Accrington Stanley in League 2 where he made 19 appearances and scored 6 goals as well as providing 4 assists
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The Millers followed this up with the signing of Stephen Hendrie on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract with West Ham United

Hendrie, 22, never made an appearance for West Ham despite costing the Hammers £1m from Hamilton Academical where he made 99 league appearances

Hendrie's only appearances south of the border have come with Southend United and Blackburn Rovers, where he has spent time on loan over the past few seasons
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Las but not least is another free signing in Josh Harrop, who's joined following the expiration of his contract with Manchester United

Harrop, 21, never made an appearance at Old Trafford despite coming through the academy with the Red Devils

The youngster, who can play anywhere in midfield and is known for his flair, will be hoping to leave a more lasting impression at the New York Stadium
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1st of SeptemberTo say this summer was tough would be an understatement. Despite our incredible season last time out, we still didn't have the profile to attract key targets, this was evidenced in the fact that many of them went to other clubs who finished lower than us last season, Tammy Abraham and Cameron Brannagan chose Ipswich over us, Kieran Dowell chose Blackburn, Sheyi Ojo chose Leeds, Tom Lawrence chose Hull and so on.

So the players we did bring in, I have new found respect for as they chose tiny Rotherham over some of the arguably bigger clubs who were also in for them, so let's meet these legends.

First up is a Wales star in Mr Tom Bradshaw. Our main target who's come in for an initial £1.2m then some add-ons and installments. I'm really excited about this because not only is Bradshaw a goalscorer, he's one at international level with the 25 year old bagging the second in a 2-0 Wales win over Serbia, he scored 34 league goals in 2 years for Walsall and 12 for relegated Barnsley last season, this lad can score. Speaking of goalscorers, I'd like you to meet the other striker we signed, Mr Adam Le Fondre, who's joined us on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract at Cardiff City. Adam, of course played for Rotherham for three seasons, scoring 52 league goals in 93 league appearances before his big move to Reading where he made his name. I expect goals.

Last guy to board the Rotherham party bus was Joao Teixeira, who's joined us on loan from Benfica. We needed an attacking midfielder and Lawrence, Dowell and Woodburn all turned us down

Next, the results. The season started disastrously away to Brentford as we succumbed to a 3-0 defeat, Bradshaw missed an open goal and Le Fondre didn't do much better as we played ok but somehow got absolutely battered at Griffin Park. Our misery was compounded soon after as we lost 1-0 at home to Shrewsbury Town at home in the League Cup, is this second season syndrome?

A new tactic was in order as we played a 4-1-2-1-2 at home to Bolton and it worked a treat with Appiah playing in behind Bradshaw and Le Fondre, a 4-0 win was the reward for my tactical genius with Ekstrand and George Evans scoring in the first half and an own goal and Harry Wilson wonder goal supplementing our lead in the second half

We then travelled to The Den to face everyone's favourite club, Millwall. A Tom Bradshaw brace was enough for us to leave with all three points before repeating the 2-1 win at home to Cardiff as Le Fondre bagged a brace and should have had more against his former club

Nottingham Forest were the next visitors to the New York Stadium and we took them apart with such ease I felt sorry for them as we battered them 4-0 recording 26 shots and 16 on target in what pundits then referred to as a "statement". Bradshaw, Le Fondre, Appiah and Cain bagged the goals
 
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MILLERS MARCH ON
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Rotherham United have continued their incredible start to the season as they sit at the top of the Premier League at the end of September

The Millers, who finished 6th last season, have confounded pundits by continuing their good form this month, which has included a 6-3 win over Huddersfield Town
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This has been backed up by a 2-1 victory over Hull and a 3-2 win at home to Burton Albion as well as draws with Brighton and Birmingham

Despite this, cracks have begun to show at the New York Stadium following 1-0 losses away to Bristol City and Queens Park Rangers
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Top of the Premier League eh?! Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet ;)
 
Top work (wish our season was half as good as yours) and as a Millers fan I am definitely following this. Good decision signing Le Fondre he's a Rotherham legend.
 
OCTOBER
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Some huge games this month

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Rotherham United 2-1 Middlesbrough
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Camp, Fisher, Ball, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans (Cain 58), Doughty, Teixeira (Wilson 58), Appiah, Le Fondre
A solid win at home to Boro as we just about get the job done with a boring second half from both sides contributing to that

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Rotherham United 1-2 Blackburn Rovers
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans, Doughty, Teixeira (Wilson 67), Le Fondre, Bradshaw (Appiah 67)
Well THAT was ******* dreadful

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Reading 0-0 Rotherham United
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock (Hendrie 74), G.Evans, L.Evans (Doughty 56), Newell, Teixeira (Appiah 56), Le Fondre, Bradshaw
*ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Rotherham United 2-2 Everton
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)Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans (Newell 75), Doughty, Teixeira (Wilson 59), Le Fondre, Bradshaw (Appiah 59)
We were seriously hanging on here, how we got out with a draw I'll never know

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Leeds United 0-0 Rotherham United
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans (Doughty 80), Newell, Taylor, Wilson (Ward 68), Le Fondre
We've been poor recently so we changed it up to a 4-3-3 and improved greatly away at Elland Road

LEAGUE TABLE
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The fall begins​
 
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HAWKINS GRABS MANAGER OF THE MONTH AWARD
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Rotherham United manager has bagged the Manager of the Month award for November after guiding the Millers to three successive wins

The 21 year old, who won the award in earlier his season in August, has said he is "honoured" to have received such an award

The Welshman won the award following back-to-back-wins over Charlton Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town, beating them 2-0, 2-0 and 1-0 respectively

This run of form has left Rotherham second in the Sky Bet Championship with Millers fans dreaming of the Premier League

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1st of January 2018
The curse of the Manager of the Month award is yet to strike as we enjoyed a solid end to 2017, racking up 3 wins, 3 draws and a solitary draw as we march onto 2018 full of confidence

We started the month with back-to-back away draws as we visited the cities of Birmingham and London to face Aston Villa and Fulham. Our defence stood strong against two sides who's combined Salary per annum is £52m, ours, by comparison, is £6m, between them these who clubs spend more in two months than we do in a year and yet we sit in 4th whilst Villa and Fulham are in 17th and 20th respectively, I would say its moneyball but I don't know how that works, good film though

It was a solid foundation which we built on upon our return to the great villa- town, really? Of Rotherham. We dispatched of underperforming with consummate professionalism, beating them 2-0 via Jon Taylor and Tom Bradshaw, before hosting Brentford and serving revenge via a 3-0 win with Bradshaw bagging another with Lee Evans scoring a brace

AND THEN, Millwall came to town, scored in the first three minutes, st on the lead and defended well. They essentially did what we did last season, 4-4-*******-2 was deployed and, as we at Rotherham know, that's a solid defensive formation and we just couldn't work our way through, such a shame
We then hit the road for games at Bolton and Cardiff, we played Wanderers off the park at the Macron Stadium, beating them 2-0 but it should have been more as a Tyler Blackett own goal and another Tom Bradshaw goal, we probably should have scored a couple more but three points is three points

I then went home to Cardiff and took the team with me for a kickabout at the Cardiff City Stadium which resulted in an uninspiring 0-0 draw, so, so boring.
 
1st of February 2018

The transfer window is over and thank Christ for that. We somehow managed to keep a hold of our wonderkids (I use this term loosely) Louis Ekangamene and Joe Crossley despite bids from the likes of Tottenham and West Ham and also managed to offload the players we didn't want as we sold Danny Ward to Brighton for £1.5m and Lewis Price to Oxford for £28,500

The ins were a whole lot more exciting as we brought in Ben Woodburn on loan from Liverpool, signed Australian international Jake Andrews from Melbourne City for £650,000 (he needs a work permit, we've sent him to Denmark to get one) and Fraser Fyvie from Hibs for £400,000. Good business.Onto the games. We kicked January off away to Hull where we hit a stumbling block, losing 1-0 to the Tigers at the KCOM Stadium before this poor form continued as we drew 0-0 at home to Exeter City in the FA Cup Third Round, what was wrong with us?

We soon arrested this slide, however, away to Nottingham Forest with a 2-0 win with goals coming from debutant Ben Woodburn and his Welsh counterpart Harry Wilson before we stuffed Exeter 3-1 at St James' Park with Bradshaw, Doughty and Taylor chipping in for a comfortable win

We followed this up with a comfortable 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town with all three goals coming between the 26th and 30th minutes with Joe Newell bagging a brace and Ben Woodburn adding his second in as many games before we secured another draw in the FA Cup, this one away to Middlesbrough as Louis Ekangamene's first ever goal secured as a replay at the New York Stadium

We ended the month with a 1-0 away to Brighton and Hove Albion with Lee Evans scoring his third goal of the season to keep the promotion campaign on track
 
1st of March 2018February picked up where January left off as we defeated Birmingham City 1-0 at home via another Ben Woodburn goal (he's on fire at the moment) as we continued steaming on, well, in the league at least as we were sent crashing out of the FA Cup at home to Middlesbrough with a 1-0 loss. Youngsters McDonald, Enkangamene and Crossley all started for us which tells you how seriously I was taking this, we followed the loss to Middlesbrough with a draw at the Riverside as our league form remained steady

We returned to Rotherham for our next game as we played host to The Wurzels an beat them with ease as we smashed them 4-1 with four different scorers in Woodburn, Ekstrand, Turner and Lee Evans as we put Bristol firmly in their place

That was soon followed by another 3 goal victory as we visited Burton-upon-Trent to thump Burton Albion 3-0 in a performance as dominant as you'll ever see with Ben Woodburn, Harry Wilson and youngster Louis Ekangamene scoring our trio of goals but it really should have been more before we returned home for the last game of the month against QPR where we ran out 2-0 winners via Joe Newell and Louis Ekangamene, he's starting to get a bit of the golden touch

Our January business has really seemed to pay dividends so far, especially Ben Woodburn as he's bagged 7 goals since arriving on loan, the young Welshman has scored 41% of the goals we've scored with him on the pitch, talk about impact. He's also helped us close the gap on top sides Huddersfield and Leeds, making it very much game on in the Sky Bet Championship
 
MARCH
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With not long before the end of the season, every game counts

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Rotherham United 2-1 Reading
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans, Newell (Doughty 74), Taylor, Wilson (Bradshaw 24), Woodburn
A very solid performance as we dominated at home to Reading where we should have scored more, Harry Wilson is out for the season

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Blackburn Rovers 0-0 Rotherham United
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock, G.Evans, L.Evans (Doughty 16), Newell, Taylor, Woodburn, Appiah (Fyvie 59)
*ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Everton 1-0 Rotherham United
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Mattock (Hendrie 77), G.Evans, Fyvie, Newell (Doughty 77), Appiah, Woodburn, Bradshaw (Le Fondre 65)
With a lack of wingers we had to compromise with a 4-3-1-2 and it sort of worked as we kept the score down, this isn't the game you want to be ******* about with formations in and with both of us gunning for promotion this could have serious implications moving forward

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP
Charlton Athletic 1-3 Rotherham United
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Camp, Fisher, Ekstrand, Turner, Hendrie, G.Evans (Cain 62), Fyvie, Newell, Taylor, Woodburn, Appiah (Bradshaw 62)
Charlton's only shot on target had us worried for a while only for Joe Newell to pop up and put us back on track, Woodburn added the third to ease the pressure at the end

LEAGUE TABLE
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Promotion's on the cards​
 
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