An excellent critical review Ian and a pleasure to read. I also spotted the Oxford fans' review (Davidedin posted the link) which sings the Millers praise from the rooftops. People will be sitting up and taking notice now so we'll be in everyones sights to topple us from the number one spot. It's not going to be easy but this is the time when we prove our mettle.
Reference the comparison between the Evan's League One side and this one. I was not and still am not a fan of Evans the man but he assembled a good side and got us promoted. It would be churlish to pretend otherwise. In general terms, the feel good factor was enormous at that time. We had emerged from the dark days at Don Valley and had come up from League Two. I doubt that many of us expected us to go straight up through League One. We hadn't been there for a while and there was something exciting about mixing it again after years in the doldrums. The supporters were in dreamland at the prospect of Championship football. We were on the up. Compare that to now. Being in League One at all is disappointing. It is perceived as a step backwards. We expect to be in and around the top of this league. If we weren't many would be calling for the managers head. We are top and even now you get the odd supporter still unhappy. We think of ourselves as a big club in the division. Some people moan regularly that the league is crap and it feels like a chore to them to have to play against clubs like Burton, Rochdale etc at all. A Wembley play-off visit would be a bit of an anti-climax. They are getting a bit old hat. In a nutshell, I think it's a matter of context and expectation, with a bit of nostalgia thrown in. I think the current side is every bit as good as the Evans league one side and probably better, but for the reasons outlined those days somehow felt more exciting for many. I think it does say something about how far we have come as a club. Thats my take on it. The challenge, as it has been for the last three or four seasons, is whether or not and how we can take the next step and compete against clubs with vastly more resources than we have if we can get back up.
Different times Sunderland looking for a new owner Ipswich heavily in debt Bolton owe more than div 1&2 put together. They can"t buy there way back to the Championship. I think Portsmouth will finish strong my impression it is not a very strong league we have a chance of finishing in the top 6 going up I can't see it.
Just a thought if we were to go up it's a big if we will have to ditch this manager he will have to go being the milk monitor and get some one in in who knows what they are doing.
TH - you cannot help yourself can you? A series of inciteful, thoughtful posts is ruined by your petulant, schoolboy taunt. Attention seeking at best - pathetic in reality. Can you not find somewhere else to play?
Barnsley have done it they have put themselves in a position where they have a good chance of stopping up. I don't want to see another pointless season in the Championship. If you want to watch that again there is no team in this division good enough to stop up where do you start. Ì would like to hear from a proper reply not the usual Warney is great replies. It is time to move on we can't stick with the same broken record.
TH.can you tell me what more this management team at New York have to do,we seem to have found a system thats working for us,we are putting a decent little run together and we are top of the league in January,if I remember right at the beginning of the season a few posters on here were tipping a relegation battle ,
I think this squad is much better overall (you're never going to get every new signing right) than the squad that went up via the playoffs last time, and I'd be much more confident, with 4 or 5 additions, that we could compete enough to stay up. The change of appointment team with Scotty, from the previous disater, has been a big factor in my opinion.
Promotion is a long way off, but we are top and playing well, how can you ask any more right now?!
I'm not going to take the bait about the Manager, but he and his team ARE THE REASON the players are putting in 100% shift and playing well as a team, working hard for each other. Listen to Crook's post Oxford blog or many others earlier, even when we were not doing as well, the players are happy and trying 100% in every game, that's all we can ask.
UTM
p.s. Best ignore the two idiots in my opnion, starve them of attention...
Chatting to another millers fan yesterday and he was saying it's great being top of the league (I know a lot of you are not going to believe it but I do) but he didn't want us to go up much happier where we are. As you on this site are probably aware I am not the present manager's biggest fan I am doing my best to live with it. I can see him moving onto another job soon I just think we have move a bit quicker and not be messing about looking for a new man just before the next season.
One of the idiots here. Warney he's going nowhere he's at his level now. He can't manage in the championship. Not strong enough. Not reading Crooks blog don't rate him as a player. I've been bored this season but will always support the club.
You are both behaving like sulky children who are having a tantrum because their mummy says that they can't have any sweeties. Paul Warne is doing a great job. Accept it. Learn to live with it.
I don’t think you can compare the two sides. Football moves on quickly even in short spaces of time. We had some great loan players that season that really pushed the team on (Tavernier, Dicko, Smallwood to name a few) Now the loan market works differently I don’t think that type of quality is available anymore to league one sides.
Another careful addition possibly to the back four this January could really see us kick on.
I must admit when we were struggling at home I began to doubt Warnes ability to correct the issues the 4 3 3 formations not working etc, not using the players in the correct positions etc, and he seemed to carry on what appeared to be making the wrong decisions tactically with substitutions like he did last season.
No one can deny the success we are currently having despite the injuries and suspensions we are carrying. long may it continue GLAD TO BE PROVEN WRONG
Will he leave like TH millers has said, somehow I doubt it unless it's for a big pay rise then Rotherham will have to recruit and pay more to get a decent replacement.
Up the millers and onwards to Bristol Rovers and GWRU fav player blaster Harris
-- Edited by hillsborough miller on Monday 13th of January 2020 02:56:24 PM
Also happy to be proven wrong. Barlaser is much more involved and not the passenger he was before December. The free kicks and corners have also improved no end.
The intensity has also gone up which many called for too many times especially at home we’ve been slow and in second gear, we gave Oxford zero respect Saturday and look what happened when we got about a good side with the pace and power we have being allowed to express themselves.
I don’t think you can compare the two sides. Football moves on quickly even in short spaces of time. We had some great loan players that season that really pushed the team on (Tavernier, Dicko, Smallwood to name a few) Now the loan market works differently I don’t think that type of quality is available anymore to league one sides.
Another careful addition possibly to the back four this January could really see us kick on.
That is fair comment C.
I think it could be argued that the standard in League One has improved in recent seasons because as the standard in the Premier League goes up with more and more world class imports, more of the best home grown players are forced to ply their trade further down the pyramid. I agree though that it is difficult to compare teams from different seasons and I am sure there are valid counter-arguments.
In any case, the point I was trying to make is not so much which was the better side, but the fact that the Evans days are remembered so fondly by many compared to the Warne side., Here we sit with a team that is top and that has more points and has scored more goals than the Evans team had after the same number of games in 2013/14, but there are still people who say that it has been a boring season and who would still have the manager sacked if they could have their way. Where once a chance of a play-off place in League One was considered to be beyond our wildest dreams, top of League One is nothing to be celebrated. That is a very odd state of affairs.
I think the patchy home form might be a factor, but I also think it is a measure of where we are as a club and what we have come to expect as Rotherham supporters.
It's not doom & gloom far from it. Just way I see things. I would have liked a couple of signings this window with a view to playing in the championship next season. I thought we did ok against Hull. I can only go on the games I've seen. I'm pro Lindsay feel he could play a league up disappointed he didn't start at Oxford. Getting away with it in this league but playing Wiles at full back it's telling me Oxford can't have been that good.
You'd have liked a couple of signings in? Why? Wouldn't that potentially move your boys Hinds, Lamy and Kayode down the pecking order? "Getting away with it in this league but playing Wiles at full back it's telling me Oxford can't have been that good". Oxford were good, it's just that the Millers were much, much better and blew them away in the first half. I know what you will find that difficult to comprehend, but it's exactly as Paul Davis and I saw it, although I realise that you refuse to read anything that he writes because he obviously doesn't share your high standards of expectation for Rotherham United. Crooks was man of the match, which you will interpret as Oxford must be rubbish, but you carry on regardless. You are the only one that knows and understands the game, innit.
I never read what Paul Davies says cause they all p*ss in the same pot with Warney ect. I get tizer every Friday never read what Warney or Richard Wood says doesn't interest me. Used to read what Vaulks said cause I rated him. All I can go on is what I see. Crooks was sloppy last two games played at the New York, he got a ball on the left against Hull couldn't control it so just booted it out of play. I thought this is not a player. Lindsay came on just doing simple things but doing them right passes to were they are meant. Hinds was wrong game for him Saturday but Mattock he's not played good enough this season to be an automatic choice. Lamy whose got ability can't see how we'll see him this season then his contracts up with Adelakun straight in as one of Warney's boys! Kayode I'd like to see if Smith needs a rest, he's more a Smith type player than Ladapo.
Hillsborough be good to see blaster Harris again but don't think he's playing in that good a side so don't think he'll be that much of a threat.
"He got a ball on the left against Hull couldn't control it so just booted it out of play". So a five second passage of play, that your assessment is based upon, if only partly, lasted five seconds. He ran the midfield on Saturday, with Barlaser alongside him. Was I "watching him carefully" waiting for a five second mistake? No. I suspect that you will be.
I see that the Yorkshire Post have three Rotherham players in their team of the week. Crookes with "a sublime performance" (don't rate him as a player), Vassell "Oxford defence found him too hot to handle" (don't see what he brings to the team) and Ogbene "pace and grace" (can't cross a ball, no end product). Professional sports writers seem to have a different view to one or two people on this site.
