Millers must summon up Wembley spirit in promotion run-in
ROTHERHAM UNITED had their fun at the weekend, now for the serious business.
You could make a case for this having been a bad week for the Millers, taken to extra-time and very nearly beaten by League Two opposition at Wembley, then dropping to third in League One on Tuesday.
The reality is Rotherham’s promotion ambitions are in their own hands. The title is not but, like their Football League Trophy winner’s medals, it is just the cherry on the top of this season’s cake.
More importantly, in the eyes of captain Richard Wood, Sunday’s win over Sutton United showed this remains a team which can get the job done after its pre-international break wobble, and one with a springboard for the run-in, which for them starts at home to Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
At least until Jordi Osei-Tutu’s equaliser in the sixth added minute, Rotherham were not very good at Wembley, not by the standards they set this season.
“We weren’t at our best, particularly in the first half, but we got the job done,” said captain Wood matter-of-factly. “That’s a good thing when you can win when you’re not at your best. Good teams find ways to win. We did that on Sunday, which I’m pleased about.
“I wasn’t pleased with how we were playing at times. I was screaming a lot at the players. I was not happy!
“We sorted it out and came out on top.”
Slightly worryingly after a twoweek break for most – though some were on international duty – manager Paul Warne partly put Rotherham’s struggles down to “legginess” but he is not concerned it will carry over into seven matches which, unlike Wembley, will determine if this season is viewed as a success or a failure.
“It’s just a psychological legginess,” he argued.
“You play at Wembley, your mouth’s really dry, if you play at New York Stadium, it’s the norm.
“I don’t see it as a problem. “They’re humans, they’re not robots. They don’t just go out and give us a nine out 10 performance, it’s difficult.”
Rotherham have not often been at their best since demolishing Doncaster Rovers on February 1. For the rest of that month they found ways to win, in March they only won one of five league games.
But the nature of their cup final win, with Chiedozie Ogbene and Michael Ihiekwe scoring extra-time goals for a 4-2 success, reminded the team never to stop believing.
“You never give up. Never,” insisted Wood. “You always feel that something could happen.
“I never gave up and I wouldn’t expect any of my team-mates to.
“In extra-time you could see the momentum shift, their lads were cramping up. They were like a team of people like me!
“We do all the work in preseason with the gaffer and coaching staff for occasions like that. He (Warne)’s mad on fitness.
“The win gives us momentum. It’s a good springboard for us to go on now and try to seal promotion.
“We’ve got to use it now – the achievement, the celebrations, how we feel – to make sure we put everything into the next few weeks. We have to make sure we seal promotion. It will be some season if we can do that, but there’s still a lot of hard work to be done.”
Unbeaten in 14 matches having won 11, Milton Keynes Dons have a two-point lead over the Millers but Warne’s side have two games in hand – tricky ones, it must be said, at Portsmouth and Sunderland – and a vastly superior goal difference to overhaul them.
Leaders Wigan Athletic finally caught up with Rotherham’s games played and moved above them on Tuesday, but only by three points. Again, the Millers have the better goal difference.
It promises to be an exciting three-way promotion race. The mettle shown at the home of football is sure to be needed again.