Raynor ‘A Much Needed Win’

Rotherham United’s Assistant Manager Paul Raynor said that last night’s two-one win over Lincoln City was ‘a good win and one that was needed’.

Speaking to Radio Sheffield after the game, Raynor said, ‘We knew how Lincoln were going to approach the game and put us under pressure at times but the response from the guys was tremendous and, in the end, we were justified winners.

‘We’d asked Sam Nombe and Mallik Wilks to be our hardest working players and they had to be. Lincoln are very direct and very on the front foot and our wide players had to put a shift in. Sam works incredibly hard for the team and it was more about trying to get Mallik through the game. He was very good offensively and had a put a real shift in. Those two guys really did the business for us. And Sean Raggett is a man mountain. Sean, Liam Kelly and Jonson Clarke-Harris are big players and they haven’t played a minute together for Rotherham United this season*. And when we signed those players in the summer they were going to be the spine of the team and when those big players are missing it is going to weaken you.

‘Christ Tiehi did really well, Joe Powell did well in midfield and Haks (Hakeem Odoffin) gives you what he always does, one hundred per cent, that energy and we needed that today.

‘The togetherness and the way they ground out a victory tonight was absolutely massive. Everybody stuck together and put a real shift in which we are delighted with.

‘It’s been really disappointing to be defeated at the New York Stadium and hear the booing and negativity because we aren’t used to that here. We are used to people cheering, singing and getting behind us. But I do get it and we aren’t where we expected to be. But now we’ve got to start and today, apart from Kelly, we really had a full squad to pick from tonight. We’ve got to build on the confidence from tonight and now we’ve got everybody fit let’s hope it’s the start of winning a lot more matches and climbing that table.’


Ed Note – I presume we are talking about the League as I’m sure they all played in the two-one win over Crewe in the League Cup.