This really is the golden ticket
Wembley goal was worth tens of millions for Wolves but sealing Rangers’ top-flight return will eclipse that priceless memory for Miller
TO Kenny Mil le r, tense, high- stakes play- off situations are not new. in 2003, the striker scored the goal which secured Wolverhampton Wanderers a slot in the Premiership via the British game’s richest football fixture.
his close-range finish in a 3-0 Wembley triumph over sheffield United condemned one stuart Mccall esq to another season in the championship. it also earned Wolves tens of millions of pounds.
Yet, in his third spell as a rangers employee, Miller is blunt. Forced to choose between the two, he would swap all the memories for the goal that leads the ibrox club back to the summit of scottish football.
The championship play-offs begin against Queen of the south on saturday evening. The artificial surface at Palmerston is far removed from the lush, vast expanses of Wembley, yet Miller said: ‘i’ve been through it all with Wolves.
‘ i’ve j ust missed out on the automatic spot when you fall into the play- offs and you are a bit disheartened. And then the opposite when we finished fifth and went up.
‘There is a cup-tie atmosphere and anything can happen. i scored for Wolves against sheffield United and we were 3-0 up at half-time in the play- offs. hopefully the same can happen on saturday.’
Miller knows more than most how heart-rending and anguishing these situations can be. Play- offs are a dog- eat- dog business, where the efforts of an entire season can be buried in minutes.
Wolves finished fifth in the championship 12 years ago, a remote 22 points below champions Portsmouth. nevertheless, they faced fourth-placed reading over t wo games, winning 3- 1 on aggregate. it was their first success in four attempts.
sheffield United were favourites to win the final, but capitulated. Miller’s goal for 3-0 before the interval rendered the second half a procession.
‘That was massive for us to go up,’ said Miller. ‘sir Jack hayward (then owner of Wolves) invested a lot in the team and we’d just fallen short the previous season having been top two for majority of it. We went into the play-offs on a bit of a downer.
‘We finally went up that second season. But with rangers it would be different because this is my club and i’ve fought hard to try to get back here in the last few years. it would mean the world to get back up there.’
how rangers fare in the play-offs may yet become the defining story of the season.
Triumph and ‘the journey’ from the lowest reaches of the scottish game is over. Publishers will rush out books and some semblance of what passes for normal service in a fraught, unpredictable national game will resume.
‘And then it’s the next stage,’ added Miller. ‘Which i s challenging f or the league and getting the glory nights back of winning leagues and trophies as well as the champions League.
‘ i’ ve been at rangers three times now a nd i love the place — if i didn’t, i wouldn’t have wanted to come back. ‘When i l eft, i missed the people. i love playing for the club.’
And yet, to regard a rangers promotion as some kind of given would be a bold call. Already this season, Queen of the south have beaten t he ibrox side twice at Palmerston — by 2-0 and, more recently, by 3-0.
rangers retain confidence that a full house for the second l eg can swing i t. should they fail, the implications for the new regime and the club as a whole are grim.
Any argument for interim manager Mccall being allowed the chance to rebuild a winning team in the championshi p , a way from Premiership scrutiny and pressure, is counterbalanced by Dave King’s impatience to get rangers back challenging celtic swiftly.
should the team fail in the coming games, King and interim chairman Paul Murray will face urgent, probing questions on how, precisely, they plan to restore the old order to a violently different landscape.
‘scottish football has had three years without rangers and this season without hearts and hibs in the top flight,’ added Miller (left).
‘The best teams need to be in the top league — but with hibs and hearts relegated last season it has taken that away. i’m sure, whether it’s this season or next season, all three will be back in the top flight.’
hearts are already back. That much is assured. And Queen of the south and hibernian have done enough to raise legitimate doubts as to whether rangers will join them.
conventional thinking has it that rangers will come through. They are rangers and usually do. They have players, like Miller, with a big-game mentality. A collective, institutional self-belief.
Yet the flaky, inconsistent form shown by this current light blue crop makes that a dangerous, outdated assumption.
‘We had a little bit of a reaction in terms of the hibs and hearts games,’ added Miller.
‘They are the higher-profile games and that is a good sign going into the play-offs. if we can repeat the hibs and hearts performances, then we don’t have anything to worry about — but it’s the ones where we haven’t hit the heights. That is the worry.
‘As a rangers player, you’ve got to want to win every game.
‘We’re going into this focused on winning both games and then the next four and getting to the Premiership.
‘We’re on the back of a good performance, albeit a poor last 10 minutes, against hearts.
‘We must make sure what has happened at Palmerston in the two games this season isn’t repeated.’
That a dozen rangers players fall out of contract after the play- off final on May 31 may not help.
Miller is one of them, but he insisted: ‘The fact i’m out of contract in the summer isn’t an issue.
‘i’m focused on beating Queen of the south, hibs and then whoever finishes 11th in the Premiership.’