Rotherham United welcome Queens Park Rangers to the New York Stadium on Saturday with both teams languishing in the bottom three.
The Millers come into this game on the back of a two-nil loss last Sunday away at rivals Sheffield Wednesday (the third of the trio in the bottom three) while Rangers suffered a loss at home to Leicester City.
Rangers last away saw them go down to ten men just before the hour mark at West Bromwich Albion, the Baggies taking the lead from the disputed penalty and getting a second nine minutes later. Rotherham were last at home against Coventry City which saw two second-half goals give the Millers all three points.
Speaking to Radio Sheffield Millers Manager Matt Taylor agreed that this was a ‘big game’ coming on the back of a poor performance away at the weekend saying, ‘but every game is a big game. We can’t hide away from what happened last week. The feeling around the fan base on the back of Sunday means we have to quickly get them back on side and getting them believing in this group of players. I always predict there will be a shakiness about it after such a heavy moment previously and I have to take the lead as the manager and pick a team who will start in the manner that says ‘this is us, this is what we look like. And we need our fans to follow suit. QPR changing their manager means there is uncertainly there and we have no idea what we will come across but easier after the game we encountered last weekend because we just want to focus on ourselves. We do respect QPR, they have some outstanding players but we have to put a team below us in a position that stays below us and we will only do that by getting on the front foot and winning this game.’
Sean Morrison could be doubtful with a muscle injury and there has been illness in the Millers camp. And although Jamie Lindsay and Grant Hall are now training on grass it’s not thought they will play any part until after the international break while Daniel Ayala will get some game time but probably from off the bench.
Martí Cifuentes takes charge of his first game for Rangers after being appointed earlier this week and told QPR’s youtube, ‘It’s a big honour to be at a club with the history of QPR – there are good foundations in place to move forward and I can’t wait to start. I want to have fun and enjoy watching the quality players we have on show here. I’m not a coach who asks the lads to defend after scoring one goal, I would prefer to be proactive and create as many chances as we can.’
Rangers will be without suspended pair Andre Dozzell and Jack Colback while Steve Cook, Jake Clark-Sallter and Morgan Fox probably won’t make it either. Good news for the visitors is that Jimmy Dunne is back in contention for this game.
The Referee for this game is West Yorkshire’s Sam Barrott
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