Season decider for me. Not sure what Warnie will do to try and reverse our downturn. A win tonight will keep our hopes of Automatic promotion alive but it will still be a long haul to the season's end. Anything less than a win and I fear our chances of promotion will have evaporated.
Hope he will start both REG and Harding in our back 3 (or 4). I wouldn't be disappointed if Rathbone dropped to the bench and Lindsay came in. Miller to start please - Fergusson is much more effective when he comes off the bench. Up front, let's try JJ and Smudge and hold Freddie back for a late burst if required.
Match is on iFollow - let's hope it's much more enjoyable than the debacle on Saturday.
Really poor first half. We just dont look like the same team we were in the first half of the season. Very little creativity. I'm not sure Pompey are much better but they are getting in behind us which we arent doing to them. Abysmal marking for their goal. We should know that Robertson is a threat but we let him have a free header. Not looking good.
Really poor first half. The mojo has definitely gone and I'm not sure what Warne can do to get it back. With this standard of football, it's probably a blessing that we're not going to get promoted!
Really poor. The performance levels have been below par for some time. Difficult to understand why. Players who were superb earlier in the season are looking pretty ordinary now. It's a shame but if it is to be the playoffs we arent likely to compete in them playing like this. There isnt much time to turn it round. Sorry to be downbeat. We have had a terrific season but it might be remembered as one where we fell apart a bit, not one where we were dominant for the first few months. No doubt they will keep going but it's hard to feel positive about our prospects at this moment.
Warney says: 'we were outplayed and outfought and that isnt like us'. I'm afraid he is only half right. We were outplayed and outright. He is right about that. Where he is wrong is that if you look at the last couple of months it is like us, unfortunately. We have been second best in most games since January, including some that we managed to win. The games against Wednesday and Sutton spring to mind. We were poor at Fleetwood. For long spells at home against Morecambe and Lincoln we were under the cosh. We were woeful at Accrington and fortunate to beat them at home. We were dead lucky to get a point at Shrewsbury. With respect to them, the sides mentioned there are not amongst the best sides in the division. I love Warne to bits but we shouldn't pretend that this is a sudden drop in form. It's a loss of form that has started quite a while ago and has been gathering pace. I'm not ranting about it but I think that's the reality. It has still been a great season taken in the round but its slipping away a bit. We are clearly capable of being a good side when we are on it, but we need to regroup and find a spark from somewhere quickly if we are to have a hope of promotion.
We don't stand a snowballs chance in hell of being promoted & to me that's a blessing in disguise. Can you imagine this mentally fragile squad in the Championship? I'm not saying our players aren't talented footballers because they are but when questions are asked of them they go missing. Why? Just my opinion but PW relies on a 36 year old CB far too much ( look at the second Pompey goal). Woody's great & a club legend but the end is nigh lets not tarnish the memories. Mattock WTF? especially when he's got Wes on the bench not to mention REG.
Are our out of contract players already dreaming of pastures new? Have they already been "tapped up?" Makes you wonder innit?
The club's financial powers that be should be triggering the years contract extentions now in order to avoid being shafted by bigger more financially powerful clubs. I can see us starting next season in League 1 without Smith, Chieo, Wiles & Barlaser to name just four. I heard a rumour the Blades are keen on Wiles a while back but as long as we manage decent fees for them I'm OK with it, you can't stand in players way, after all it's a relatively short career.
Rob Scott & the recruitment team have to pull a few more Viktor/Rathbone rabbits out of the hat to surprise & delight us.
As for the top job, PW has enhanced his reputation in the game for the majority of the season but his resistance to change tactics even when as now we've been found out & it's going horribly & embarassingly wrong is a real worry as is his perceived favouritism. Our best player tonight by a country mile IMO Jamie Lindsay has hardly had a look in since returning from injury with the usual three midfielders starting every week. Ladapo gets game time every week despite looking disinterested & for me should be the first out of the door in the summer.
I have enjoyed 3/4 of the season but I'm raging over the last six weeks or so not just because we've started losing, more the lack of intensity on the pitch with players looking disinterested & the manager's reluctance to change when things aren't going well.
Saying all that be it another season in League 1 to rebuild (my preference) or a season of thrashings by the "big boys" which is looking less likely by the day, we'll all reconveine in August eh?
Rant over & UTM
I dont disagree with much of that Brad. Lindsay was head and shoulders our best player last night. I would say that when he has started other games he has been disappointing. Was he proving a point to the Cowleys? It is painful to say it but Wood was embarrassed a few times by George Hirst. I dont think we are mentally weak - this group have won a lot of crunch games- but we do look very predictable at times and some teams much lower in the division (I'm thinking Shrewsbury Lincoln and even Cambridge who were unlucky to lose to us twice) have made us look like we were ten years out of date with our playing style at times. We will no doubt give it 100% and I'm not ruling out promotion just yet, but it feels (very strangely given that we are third and just won a cup) like it might be time for a big shake up in the summer. Maybe even some fresh ideas at the top.
If the unthinkable does happen and we somehow do go up there still needs to be a serious in depth inquest into the events of the past month or so as to how a clearly talented team can blow a 13 point cushion.
Good teams don't become bad overnight, this goes deeper than just a loss of form and an under par performance here and there. There has got to have been a huge rift that we don't know about behind the scenes, Warne has been low for weeks now and looks a beaten man.
If the unthinkable does happen and we somehow do go up there still needs to be a serious in depth inquest into the events of the past month or so as to how a clearly talented team can blow a 13 point cushion.
Good teams don't become bad overnight, this goes deeper than just a loss of form and an under par performance here and there. There has got to have been a huge rift that we don't know about behind the scenes, Warne has been low for weeks now and looks a beaten man.
Welcome to Banter NSM - good to see another contributor!
I reckon the majority of Millers' fans are scratching their heads at the loss of form. If there was a rift of some kind, I suggest we might have detected it. I always see the squad as a tight knit bunch who get on well together and Warney doesn't seem the type of individual who would create rifts - the opposite is probably more likely.
I think there's a confluence of issues which have combined to erode our mojo. The Accrington away game stands out for me as the first time an opposition manager had us worked out and stifled our free flowing play which had taken us to the top. Other managers took note and from then, teams have given our midfield very little opportunity time to impose themselves on the game. A change of tactics a couple of months ago is a legitimate accusation to throw at the manager.
The Lapado transfer debacle may well have upset the dressing room and added to a drop in form. It has definitely led to a drop in Freddie's form and at present he is a passenger we can ill afford to carry.
Will Grigg's injury has had an immense bearing on the effectiveness of our goal scoring. Although he rarely scored, he was very effective at bringing others into the game and creating goalscoring opportunities.
There may well be many other issues which have contributed?
It's only a couple of months ago that we were having a debate about the best Rotherham team of all time and it came down to the 80/81 side and today's group. As it stands, the present team wouldn't compare with the Reserves from 80/81.
Smiler our style of play under Warne's tenure has always been 10 years out of date and i'm convinced that is down to Barker's coaching. Yet it was successful until Christmas time although there were innumerable hairy moments and many points were thieved. Although our tactics were inevitably always going to be sussed by every opponent i find it criminal that the coaching staff have been unable to find ways of hanging on to the healthy lead we had. Warne now comes across as a beaten man and i feel it's time for a change,not least to protect his mental health. The big problem of course is our wages are so poor that managing this club will only attract the hasbeens when we are crying out for a young,hungry coach with modern ideas. On current form we could easily lose every game we have left,the slump having been that bad. Despite his demons,i would not be averse to appointing Joey Barton. He is a very capable coach. His autobiography is very enlightening and an excellent read.
If the unthinkable does happen and we somehow do go up there still needs to be a serious in depth inquest into the events of the past month or so as to how a clearly talented team can blow a 13 point cushion.
Good teams don't become bad overnight, this goes deeper than just a loss of form and an under par performance here and there. There has got to have been a huge rift that we don't know about behind the scenes, Warne has been low for weeks now and looks a beaten man.
Welcome to Banter NSM - good to see another contributor!
I reckon the majority of Millers' fans are scratching their heads at the loss of form. If there was a rift of some kind, I suggest we might have detected it. I always see the squad as a tight knit bunch who get on well together and Warney doesn't seem the type of individual who would create rifts - the opposite is probably more likely.
I think there's a confluence of issues which have combined to erode our mojo. The Accrington away game stands out for me as the first time an opposition manager had us worked out and stifled our free flowing play which had taken us to the top. Other managers took note and from then, teams have given our midfield very little opportunity time to impose themselves on the game. A change of tactics a couple of months ago is a legitimate accusation to throw at the manager.
The Lapado transfer debacle may well have upset the dressing room and added to a drop in form. It has definitely led to a drop in Freddie's form and at present he is a passenger we can ill afford to carry.
Will Grigg's injury has had an immense bearing on the effectiveness of our goal scoring. Although he rarely scored, he was very effective at bringing others into the game and creating goalscoring opportunities.
There may well be many other issues which have contributed?
It's only a couple of months ago that we were having a debate about the best Rotherham team of all time and it came down to the 80/81 side and today's group. As it stands, the present team wouldn't compare with the Reserves from 80/81.
Strange old game!
Good point about Accrington, they seem to have had our number each time we have played them. The insistence on persisting with 3-5-2 which clearly hasn't worked for some time now and has stifled the more attacking players in the team has been baffling.
The random changes in personnel (Harding in one week dropped the next, Mattock in one week not even in the squad the next) and weird in game formations recently have all pointed to PW just not dealing with any sort of pressure and this indecision and hesitancy has since spread throughout the team.
Obviously its still more than do able to achieve promotion but when the manager has pretty much given up what chance have we got?
