Next Game – Rotherham United (away)

Jody Morris

If we are not safe then our hosts certainly aren’t as they sit two places below us with two points less. They go to Walsall, the favourites for the drop, next week and will be eager to get something tomorrow to avoid a crucial clash on the final day of the season.

A relegation battle was certainly not something they expected at the turn of the year. The came to the Turf towards the end of November in the bottom three but after drawing 1-1 they went on to win five and draw one of their next six fixtures to take them almost into the top half of the league.

Ronnie Moore said at the time that these were the matches they had to win as they took on Franchise, Walsall, Derby, BRBC and a then struggling Coventry. They did end that sequence with a 2-1 Boxing Day win at Wigan.

Since then there have been only four more wins, two at Millmoor and two on their travels. One of those away wins came at West Brom and more recently they won at Stoke. At home they have beaten both Reading, by a 5-1 scoreline, and the Weary Whinger’s struggling Preston.

Without much money to spend, it all went on Martin Butler in August, Moore has managed to bring some new players in since they were at Burnley.

Michael Proctor signed from Sunderland in February in a swap deal that saw Darren Byfield move to the Stadium of Light. He scored twice on his debut in that 5-1 win against Reading and has added a couple more since.

Clarets fans will recall that it was Proctor who scored against us for Bradford last season in stoppage time when they had been reduced to nine men, the goal gave Bradford a point in a 2-2 draw.

More recently Jody Morris joined the club having been released by Leeds. He was one of Peter Reid’s inspired summer signings at Elland Road but it didn’t work out there for the former Chelsea player and he is now trying to rebuild his career at Rotherham.

They also have a couple of loan players with them at the moment, Robbie Stockdale signed from Middlesbrough in February whilst West Brom’s Phil Gilchrist arrived a month later.

Rotherham are unbeaten in three games and last week drew 1-1 at Coventry with Martin Butler equalising fifteen minutes from time after Andy Morrell had given Coventry the lead early in the second half.

They were somewhat unfortunate not to win it and Moore said after the game, “I thought we deserved something from the game because we created the better chances. We had two free headers in the first half, Chris Swailes hit the post when he should have scored and Shaun Barker could also have scored”.

Moore wasn’t too impressed with referee Chris Foy after he disallowed a Rotherham goal when a Coventry defender knocked over his own goalkeeper and added, “I thought the referee was poor on the major decisions. I thought he sounded like a budgie out there, he should have been on trill”.

Rotherham’s team was:

Mike Pollitt, Robbie Stockdale, Shaun Barker, Chris Swailes, Scott Minto, Michael Proctor, Jody Morris, John Mullin, Chris Sedgwick (Andy Monkhouse 73), Richie Barker (Paul Warne 73), Martin Butler. Subs not used: Gary Montgomery, Julien Baudet, Paul Hurst.

The Clarets will be looking for their first win at Millmoor since an Adrian Heath penalty gave us a 1-0 win eleven years ago.

Click HERE to see all Rotherham’s results this season.

Past Results in the last 20 years