Rotherham United skipper Ollie Rathbone looked very despondent when he spoke to Sky Sports after the one-nil home loss to Plymouth Argyle which sent the Millers down into League One saying it had been a ‘difficult year.’
‘The table doesn’t lie,’ the twenty-seven year old midfielder said, ‘and we’ve been adrift for quite a few months. But it’s still really disappointing because we all wanted to build on last season which was hugely successful staying in the Championship. But we just weren’t good enough.
‘The Championship is difficult for every team but especially for the team with the smallest budget and we’ve had a load of issues with the training facilities this year and injuries. But I think the quality of the league has just been a different level this year.
‘We let the distance (in points) get too big then it became difficult and as the gap gets bigger and bigger the confidence gets lower and lower. It’s been a difficult year for everyone and I hope over the next year we can bounce back and be stronger because there’s a lot to learn from this season.
And a message for the supporters? ‘A massive thank you. The support has been fantastic, never wavered, always been strong. The message is the club has been in this position before and has always managed to bounce back, so keep the faith.’
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One more goal in the draws and one goal defeats, would have us on over 60 points and in 7th place. ‘If only’.
Matt Taylor summed it up when he said Hugill brings more than goals…..but that’s all that we were missing really.
Poor recruitment decisions, bad luck, injuries, red cards, and the inability to string 3 passes together sum up this dire season.
Positives include Victor, Hakim, and Sebastian.
It’s getting those goals, Edward, that we haven’t been able to do.
Yeh ok blame the training ground and injuries but in reality the team lost its fight due to strange management decisions and formations that just didn’t succeed. The gamble on cast off players such as Ayala never proved successful .The timing of MT sacking and lack of action to find a replacement was very poor.The inability to recruit a new manager with Championship experience says it all. LR might have guided Wigan to success but has no idea about Championship skills. Hopefully TS will back him with a top budget and Scott will unearth a few gems for Div 1. Although the loan signing of Wyke makes me worry over L Rs judgement.
The training ground is an excuse as RUFC have never had a state of the art facility with Hooton lodge being the best in Ronnie’s tenure. TS didn’t see that mattered and Steve Evans coped with what he had been given. Suddenly its a big issue and one that is easy to hide behind. In Rotherham there are a lot of ex Coal Board facilities which are better than Roundwood and which have been available to rent / buy eg. Maltby Mw. These don’t flood and have good access compared with Roundwood. The prime site if it could be made available would be the Phenix sports ground although it’s used currently it would be a vast improvement on Roundwood. Theres Herringthorpe fields where the Rugby club has been allowed to develop a facility. I’m sure RMBC would assist in the search.
Apparently Willy McKay has agreed £55m in funding to build a state of the art Football facility in Bawtry which will be available to rent by travelling league teams and which will host his newly founded Doncaster City FC. This is just awaiting planning approval according to Donny Free press. These are all options a true football entrepreneur would explore and develop a strategy to succeed.
I can’t see us wanting to share training facilities but I suppose anything is better than what we’re being told is at Parkgate. We had land, fourteen acres of it I believe, on Bawtry Road which was supposed to be as good or better than Everton had. Not sure why that never materialised to be honest. And not sure if someone bought Maltby Pit to build houses on? If not it would be a good site, I agree, if it was affordable.