The left-back has been back in the Millers’ starting XI for the last two games and says he feels for the strikers who are being let down by the defence.
Speaking to the Sheffield Star, Rotherham United full-back Joe Mattock has called on his fellow defenders to start focusing more and ensure the impressive goal-scoring exploits of the club’s strikers do not go to waste.
No team in the Championship has conceded more than the 20 goals Rotherham have shipped this season, and the team have been particularly poor on the road; United have lost all four of their away fixtures and conceded 14 goals in the process.
In contrast, there have been bright spots going forward for the Millers. Danny Ward has found the net four times in the opening eight games, while Chelsea loanee Izzy Brown has also impressed and notched his first senior goal in English football during the recent 2-2 draw with Bristol City.
The leaky defence and exciting attack has led to some thrilling encounters involving Rotherham this season, but Mattock feels sympathy for the strikers who are seeing their goals rapidly cancelled out.
“It’s tough when we keep conceding goals, especially for forwards,” said the 26-year-old. “If they’re scoring, as they are, and then they see us conceding, it’s tough to keep that enthusiasm. But you’ve got to keep digging away.”
There is a well-worn cliche in football about being at your most vulnerable when you have just scored, and this is something Mattock feels has been particularly relevant to the Millers this season.
“The problem is conceding after we have scored,” he admitted. “It’s happened in a few games. We get a goal and then we seem to go on the back foot.”
As an example, Rotherham’s lead lasted just 10 minutes at Ewood Park on Saturday as United went down 4-2 to a Blackburn side that had been winless before the weekend. Just a week earlier, the Millers threw away a two-goal lead to share the spoils with Bristol City.
It is a defensive record that manager Alan Stubbs – a former Premier League centre half with Everton and Sunderland – will be desperate to improve. If they keep shipping goals at their current rate of two and a half a game, it will be a long season for the South Yorkshire club.
This weekend sees Rotherham face a crunch clash with Cardiff at the New York Stadium. The Bluebirds have made a slow start under Paul Trollope and currently prop up the second tier having lost four consecutive matches.
The signing of Rickie Lambert has made little difference to the Welsh side’s attack thus far, but the former England international will be eyeing up the possibility of opening his account against Rotherham’s vulnerable back four.
The Millers go into the game sat just one place and one point above the bottom three, and will drop back into it if they are defeated on Saturday.
If they can cut out the errors at the back, they could yet start looking up rather than down in the Championship table; a win and a clean sheet this weekend would go a long way to improving the outlook at the New York Stadium.
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