Millers are ready, willing and able to produce grand finale
With 12 remaining Championship games in an energy-sapping 36 days, Leon Wobschall assesses the chances of Rotherham United beating the drop.
AS a self-confessed fitness fanatic, pre-season was always Paul Warne’s favourite time of the year as a player.
It has not changed now he is a manager. Two pre-Covid trips to Austria to prepare for campaigns with Rotherham United were as invigorating as the Alpine air in the Tyrols.
Just as his players pushed themselves to the limits up Austrian hills, so they must now climb a mountain to remain in the Championship.
A strength-sapping run of 12 games in 36 days would be a test for the club with the biggest squad resources in the division. Of which Rotherham are most definitely not.
But expect the Millers to be nothing less than on-message and ready. Few sets of players, if any at this level, have better fitness levels than Rotherham’s.
They will handle the demands of an exhaustive itinerary, unless a raft of injuries get in the way. Organisation and togetherness are also core strengths. They have coped with adversity and tough results several times over.
After a run of one win in nine fixtures at the end of last year, Rotherham dusted themselves down and picked themselves up with four victories in six at the start of 2021.
This is a squad who have handled Covid chaos, significant injury issues, even weather
problems. Despite everything that has been thrown at them, they are still standing.
They also have some key players due back for the run-in such as the indefatigable Jamie Lindsay – one of the division’s form midfielders before his
hamstring injury – a potential match-winner in winger Chiedozie Ogbene and a seen-itall defender in Joe Mattock.
It will not be easy, far from it. But then nothing ever is at this level for the Millers.
Five wins should do it, possibly four for the Millers, who occupy the final relegation spot but have games in the tank on their rivals.
They would have wanted to still play Wycombe and their two direct relegation rivals just above them in Birmingham and Coventry and they are.
Back-to-back home games against the Midlands duo in the space of four days in midApril will go a fair way towards determining their fate.
The fact that Rotherham have four successive home games between April 13-21 is perhaps just as significant.
It will cut out the need for excessive travel time and enable better preparation.
Unfortunately there is a catch and it’s a significant one, potentially.
Four of the Millers’ final five matches are on the road and include dates with three sides firmly in the promotion mix in Barnsley, Brentford and Cardiff.
Still, Rotherham’s away form is currently better than at home, with six wins in 17 games at tough places such as Derby and Middlesbrough.
Recent back-to-back road wins at Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City also pointed to reservoirs of character.
For Rotherham to pick themselves up off the floor after their Covid-19 travails and win at Ashton Gate before the last international break – just four days after being walloped at home by Watford – was a remarkable result.
There will be bumps in the road and it will not be smooth. But if anyone can do it, the Millers surely can and if Warne has one wish, it may well be this.
Namely, that his two ‘gun players’ in terms of Michael Smith and Matt Crooks stay fit and firing. If they are, then Rotherham have every chance of making it a finale to remember.
They have had a few over the years.