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Quick FA Cup Preview – Millers v Everton

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Rotherham United travel to Merseyside on Saturday to take on Premier League side Everton in the Third Round of the FA Cup.

After an excellent start to the season the Toffees come into this game in seventh place in the top tier of English football although their last home game against West Ham United saw the Hammers take all three points back to London after a one-nil win. Their last home win was mid-December when they beat Arsenal two-one.

Rotherham United are in the bottom three of the Championship having seen their last game postponed due to snow. The Millers last away game was at Blackburn which saw a good performance from the away team bring no rewards after a goal in time added gave Rovers a two-one win.

Everton skipper Seamus Coleman told their Official Site via his programme notes that Rotherham will be treated with respect saying, ‘we know we will have to be right on our mettle from the first whistle.’

Although winning his battle against an ankle injury the hosts will be without influential defender Lucas Digne and although  Jean-Philippe Gbamin is on the mend after having surgeries on a thigh problem he will also still be missing. Also out are Allan and Fabien Delph both with hamstring injuries But good news is that both Michael Keane and Alex Iwobi should be available. The Toffees have three games in eight days so this game could be an opportunity for the fringe players to show what they are made of.

‘Any Premier League team is pretty phenomenal,’ Millers Boss Paul Warne toldiFOLLOW ahead of this game, ‘and whichever team Everton put out we are going to need a lot of lady luck to win. But we don’t have any fear of going into this game and we’ve just got to allow the lads to enjoy it and hopefully make a memory they will never forgot. But I will say that if we have a massive cup run and go all the way to Wembley we’ll have a massive problem with our fixtures so I don’t intend to do that but to go through a few rounds would be ace!’

The Millers still have the long-termed injured missing for this game although things are looking more hopeful for the near future.

The Referee for this game is Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire.

BBC Pundit Mark Lawrenson has gone for a two-nil Everton win – so come on Millers show him we can put up a fight!

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4 comments

  • Jason says:

    Hi Caz,another well written article 👍🏻 Can you explain to me why the Millers don’t use their youth team now that we are allowed 9 subs? Especially when premiership Villa field a set of 18 year olds against Liverpool! I’ve heard on the grapevine we’ve got a 17 year old with premier league fitness stats who’s being watched by several top teams, particularly one North of the boarder. Why isn’t he being used on the bench? Instead we are going to lose him for free in a few months time!!!!

    • Caz Neale (Herringthorpe) says:

      Thanks Jason. No, sorry I can’t tell you why we don’t use the younger lads. I suppose we did in the EFL Trophy last year but never seem to have any on the bench when we can’t fill it. We filled it today but two of them were goalies. It is something I often muse over myself.

  • Jason says:

    Lads did well today ran their hearts out.I agree Caz what’s the point of not having a full substitutes bench. Imagine the experience it would give our young players just to be on the bench. We are never going to be able buy 5 and 10 million pound players so why not grow our own ? Especially in the current financial climate seems madness to just let them leave for other clubs!

    • Caz Neale (Herringthorpe) says:

      You do know that if we grew our own and they were that good we wouldn’t be able to keep them, don’t you Jason! They’d be sold for meggabucks and we’d be back to square one. Though we could get a few good games out of him/them. I agree with the subs bench. Steve Evans used to say he didn’t want to get the youngsters hopes up or their families just to have him sat on a bench but I disagree with that and think it wouldn’t do them any harm at all to mix with the first team.

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