RUFC – Robins ‘Have Patience’

Rotherham United manager, Mark Robins, has asked the fans to ‘be patient’ after bringing the ineffective Chris O’Grady off at half-time on Saturday.

Robins told The Advertiser, ‘Chris is only twenty-one and he’s come in and done ever so well this season. There are going to be times when it doesn’t work out. He has to bed himself in.

‘I just felt it wasn’t going to be his day on Saturday. Him and Derek Holmes were making the same movements and I felt Derek was giving us that little bit more, certainly in the air. They were making it easy for their centre halves and it just didn’t look right.’

O’Grady was replaced by young Marc Newsham at half time.

I think we all forget that Chris O’Grady is still only twenty-one. I, myself, have put ‘young’ Marc Newsham above, but him and O’Grady are the same age and I have never put ‘young’ Chris O’Grady.

I also think some of us have forgotten what we put for our predictions for where we would finish at the end of the season. For me, the first few weeks of the season have surpassed what I thought we would have done. I imagined us having a struggle to start with – in effect we had a brand new team, a young team – but we have done well so far and yes, I was disappointed on Saturday, but I am always disappointed when we lose at home. And, yes, I still think there is something not quite working – sticking my neck out, I think some of the players are looking a little tired.

But I do think we have to get behind the team and keep up the good fan base we already have while trying to encourage others to come. We have to start to think positive again and let the team know that’s how we are thinking.