As one of the longer lasting League One clubs, one of our tasks is to ‘welcome’ the seven new opponents who will be joining us next season. Rotherham United have already been relegated from the Championship. In the season so far they have won just four matches (none away) and have conceded 85 goals.
It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Rotherham has had its
economic and social challenges since the decline of the steel industry. It is very much in the shadow of a more
vibrant Sheffield.
When I was an undergraduate (nearly sixty years ago) one of
my flat mates had a girl friend who came from Rotherham. Not only that, her family owned the leading
(probably the only) department store in Rotherham. When he went up there he was given a tour of
the department store with every member of staff bowing and scraping to Miss
X.
I can’t give her name because she is still alive and I had a
bit of a run in with her which looks bizarrely amusing in retrospect, but
annoyed me at the time. What was
evident was that the family were not short of money including a big house in an
even then expensive Cornish resort. The
point here is that Rotherham was once a prosperous working class community.
Now, ‘Rotherham has been ranked the unhappiest place to live
in England according to a survey. Rightmove asked 21,000 people to
complete a study based on their overall happiness with their area and what
makes a place feel like home. Out of 221 cities, towns and villages surveyed,
Rotherham came bottom of the list.’
Many years back after seeing Charlton play an early kick off
at Huddersfield, some of us went over to see Brighton play at Millmoor,
Rotherham United’s then ground. I
thought it was a typical old style Third Division North ground, atmospheric but
not 21st century.
Now the Millers have a smart new stadium, the New York
Stadium (actually named after a local area), but they keep yo yoing between the
Championship and League One, although the training ground is a swamp and apparently
frequently under water. They have been relegated in four of the last eight
seasons, owner Tony Stewart refusing to splash the cash and put the club into
debt.
Stewart owns a local lighting manufacturing firm.
Former supremo Matt Taylor missed all his summer transfer targets
and ended up signing players who were too old or injury prone to attract
interest elsewhere.
They might be better off trying to consolidate in League
One, taking advantage of not paying Championship wages to improve the
infrastructure. A decent training ground
is a key to success.
Match day attendances are a constraint: the record at the
new stadium was 11,758 against local rivals Sheffield United in 2013.
However, the owner and the fans will expect them to compete
so they could well be in the running for promotion. In other words, they are a potential thorn
in our side as we seek to escape from League One.
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