Everybody was tipping Rotherham to go down this season back in August, but with a third of the season played, it’s not looking likely to happen despite them losing important members of their promotion squad in the summer and their highly rated manager Paul Warne a couple of months ago.
Sadly, Cardiff City, drifting along aimlessly off the field and truly feeble in front of goal on it, look the more likely relegation side. The lack of communication from the club’s hierarchy since the sacking of Steve Morison is becoming a major issue – the very fact that Morison was sacked so soon into the season proves that Messrs Tan, Dalman and Choo pay attention to what’s happening at the club, but there are times when you really do wonder about that.
There is a little good news, Isaak Davies was photographed training with the squad this week. Apparently, he’s “on the grass” whatever that means – I’m a miserable old fogey I know, but there really has been so much corporate claptrap talked by Cardiff City managers (past and present) when it comes to injured players in terms of what’s wrong with them and when they’ll return in recent seasons.
My onw view on our prospects is that if and when we start getting important injured men back and stop shooting ourselves in the foot by getting players sent off in the opening minutes of matches (granted, sometimes due to inept referees making pathetic decisions), we can start climbing the table a little.
However, I would be more confident about that if the powers that be at the club could offer some proof that they are working to a coherent plan which includes a structured recruitment section containing people who are well versed in modern recruitment procedures – I realise that’s pie in the sky mind, Tan and co have shown no inclination to do that in the past and I see no reason why they will change after more than a decade of a combination of inertia and mismanagement.
I can’t see us winning on Saturday with the man who we rely on so much on the attacking front missing, but maybe we can stop the rot of three straight goalless losses with a 1-1 draw?
Here’s seven questions on Rotherham.
60s. Can you name the player described below?
This forward started off with his hometown club and barely left Yorkshire during his long career. His time at Rotherham saw him score on a consistent basis (he had one memorable afternoon playing against City), but he’s better known for his achievements at his second club representing a future UK City of culture. Until quite recently, the just short of a decade our man spent at this club would be regarded as the best period in their history probably and he was the third, and probably least renowned, of a trio of regular goalscorers they had during this time. He stepped outside his home county (not too far out of it mind) for a season at the end of his playing career to turn out for a club which was hoping that last season was as bad as things got for them, but, currently, there’s every indication they could get worse still.
70s. Born in a city which didn’t have a Football League club at the time but does now (we’ve played against them this season), this forward was spotted playing for his local team and signed for a club whose ground at the time sounded like it would soon be the victim of an invader from the Netherlands. The bulk of his ten year career (that almost spanned this decade) in the Football League was spent at this club. Never a prolific scorer, he’d become more of a midfield man by the time he moved to Rotherham in the middle of this decade and he was a near ever present in the two seasons he spent with them before moving a short distance to play in a combination of red and white again. He maintained his career scoring rate of a goal every four or five matches at this club before dropping out of full time football to manage miner’s welfare in Maltby, who is he?
80s. Smut on the highways by the sound of it!
90s.Bearing lay more in centreback (5,5).
00s. Possible way of describing a hairless dog?
10s. A Rotherham side beaten by City during this decade included three players who would later sign for us, can you name them?
20s. Touchline hugger on Scottish island?
Answers:
60s. Ken Houghton made his debut for Rotherham in 1960 and among the fifty six league goals he scored for them was a hat trick in a 3-1 home win over City in October 1964. The following year, Houghton moved to Hull City where he would eventually form one of the Second Division’s most potent attacking combinations with Ken Wagstaffe and Chris Chilton. Houghton scored seventy nine times in over two hundred and fifty league appearances for the Tigers before moving to Scunthorpe for a season prior to his retirement from playing in 1974.
70s. Dick Habbin started his career with Cambridge United and was signed by Reading (who used to play at Elm Park) in 1969. Six years later, Habbin moved to Rotherham and then made the short move to Doncaster in 1977. After another two year stay, Habbin left to become player manager of Maltby Miners Welfare FC.
80S. Mark Rhodes.
90s. Brian Gayle.
00s. Shaun Barker/
10s. Lee Camp, Greg Halford and Danny Ward.
20s. Lewis Wing.