The Millers produced a brave performance against Huddersfield but there was no end reward for their efforts.
Rotherham United’s Lee Camp
Rotherham fell to their fifth straight away loss, going down 2-1 to Huddersfield on Tuesday Night. The result saw Rotherham fall to the bottom of the Championship after ten games. After another away game without any points, it’s time to look at a common problem to address and a likely obstacle they face moving forward.
Conceding early goals
When you are away from home a key message that any manager would tell his players is that if you keep it tight in the early stages of games, the supporters will start to get frustrated and that it will feed its way down to the players. A sense of edginess then fills the stadium and that aids the away team.
Dominic Ball of Rotherham United
On their travels this season, Rotherham have been unable to force any pressure on their opposition conceding goals in the first 30 minutes against Blackburn(twice), Brighton(twice), Aston Villa and against Huddersfield.That immediately puts them behind the eight ball as they have to come out and attack, which leads us on to the next point.
Rotherham’s Danny Ward in action
It is tough to keep the morale high
To give credit to Rotherham they didn’t throw in the towel when going one down against the Terriers. The Official Rotherham website reported that manager Alan Stubbs spoke in positive terms about the performance. “We have come here and after a really poor start, grown into the game and got ourselves back into it. It was a much better performance away from home but we come away with nothing,” Stubbs said.
Keeping the players “up” during this difficult period remains the manager’s biggest challenge. It’s only natural that the players spirit will drop once every goal goes in for the opposition and they will be thinking “here we go again.” So Stubbs and captain Lee Frecklington have to rally the troops and keep up the spirit no matter how hard that may be.
Tom Adeyemi of Rotherham United misses a chance to score
The challenge doesn’t get any easier anytime soon for the Millers. On Saturday they play Newcastle (home) followed by Norwich (away), Birmingham (away) and Reading (home). On current form it’s hard to see them picking up any more than a point from those fixtures. It is a long season and we are still some distance from reaching the half way mark, but it is clear that to see that there is plenty of work to be done for Rotherham to secure safety in the Championship for a third consecutive season.
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