Warne is planning for unexpected at rivals Wednesday

PAUL WARNE’S usually meticulous planning went out of the window with an unexpected announcement from Hillsborough on Monday.

Darren Moore’s appointment as Sheffield Wednesday manager means the Millers will treat tonight’s vital South Yorkshire derby more like an opening game of the season, according to opposite number Warne.

The sides meet in Sheffield a point apart in the Championship relegation zone, Rotherham ahead with an extra match to play. Both sides have games in hand on those above, but they will only count for anything if they can get winning again. That is the job Moore was brought in from Doncaster Rovers to do.

Caretaker-manager Neil Thompson used a few different formations of two and three central defenders but not the 4-2-3-1 Moore more or less set in stone at the Keepmoat. Whether he is confident in asking the Owls to play it after two training sessions remains to be seen.

“It is a massive shock and you know what football is like, we sort of hear everything before it is out there!” said Warne of the appointment.

“When we sat here yesterday doing the meeting on how we thought Sheffield Wednesday were going to play going through it with the analyst, all of a sudden he said that Darren had got the job.

“Darren has been playing a different system, he defends differently on set-pieces and has different attacking set-pieces.

“Then you’re preparing to play a team like it is the first game of the season because you don’t know what team he’ll pick or which system he’ll use.

“Normally we’re really meticulous on our planning and this time we can’t be. Instead we’ll have to explain to the lads, how we’re going to beat them, rather than how we’re going to stop them.”

Rotherham, who played Doncaster twice early last season, once in League One and in the Football League Trophy, will be without Clark Robertson for the rest of March but Warne hopes to have Richard Wood in contention.

He thinks the Owls have chosen well in Moore, which in the dog-eat-dog world of a relegation battle is bad news for him.

“I’m not over-the-moon with it because I’m competing with him for survival but I think if I was a Sheffield Wednesday fan I’d be very, very happy,” he said.