Quick Look Back At Last Season – May

The last month of the season saw Rotherham United have two games with Middlesbrough making the trip to the New York Stadium on May Day.


‘Boro already knew they had a place in the Play-Offs and in their starting line-up was Dan Barlaser who left the Millers in January. Both teams had early chances and it wasn’t looking so good for the hosts when both Chieo Ogbene and Shane Ferguson had to leave the pitch before half-time adding to Rotherham’s injury woes. In the five minutes of time added on at the end of the first half Keith Stroud gave a red card to Anfernee Dijksteel who he said was the last man after he brought down Jordan Hugill on the edge of the area. A good area for a free-kick saw Cohen Bramall place the ball and take the set-piece and much disappointment to every Miller watching putting it over the crossbar. But the second half was just three minutes old when a ball from Ollie Rathbone found Hakeem Odoffin whose cracker of a shot from distance flew into the back of a net to give the Millers up. Later in the game Odoffin went down and after treatment returned to the pitch but couldn’t carry on making another injury for Matt Taylor to worry about. ‘Boro had chances to equalise but the Millers kept them out and celebrated staying in the Championship with the fans after the game. ‘We have to enjoy this,’ Millers Manager Matt Taylor said after the game and was pleased we’d stopped up with a game in hand.


A week later saw the Millers travel to the DW Stadium to take on already League One bound Wigan Athletic. Both teams had youngsters on the bench due to injuries while Wigan had the added problem of having to pick players who the club hadn’t actually paid for the previous week. It wasn’t a great game with probably the best chances going to Rotherham when a burst of speed from Tariqe Fosu saw him fly into the box and shoot only for debutant Sam Tickle in the hosts’ goal to save before he also got his hand to a curling shot from Leo Hjelde that looked to be sneaking into the top corner. In the end it was a goalless draw and saw the Millers get to the ‘magic’ fifty point mark.

Vital Rotherham’s Player of the Year went to Ollie Rathbone who got a couple of votes more than Viktor Johansson.

At the end of the season Rotherham United ended in nineteenth place with fifty points, Queens Park Rangers one below on goal difference and Huddersfield three points better off in eighteenth.

And that was that for the 2022/3 season which left the Millers very happy to be playing in the Championship again next season – but also knowing there is quite a lot of work to be done.