Rotherham fan Ross Middleton tells LFW new manager Neil Redfearn is making a decent fist of keeping the Millers up, after inheriting a dire situation from predecessor Steve Evans.

Assess Rotherham’s season so far…

RM: Eventful to say the least. Losing runs, winning runs, losing runs, winning runs - in a nutshell. Three draws all season tells its own story, not forgetting the departure of Mr Evans, who turned up at Leeds, a match made in Hell some would say.

There have been some highs: Boxing Day beating of Bolton by four and last Tuesday’s impressive job on Brighton. But there have been many lows; capitulation at home to Ipswich (2-5) and drab performances at Derby and Middlesbrough where we were beaten before we’d even kicked off, such was the negativity of the teams set up on those occasions. Apparently we’ve used 31 players this season (the most of any team in the Championship), which tells me that Neil Redfearn inherited some utter tripe and our recruitment was again hit and miss to say the least (a regular feature of Evans’ tenure).

Given the job Steve Evans did, and that he’d just won two in a row, why was he sacked and how was the decision received?

RM: The two in a row against Birmingham and Cardiff glossed over what had been a pretty poor start to the season. We lost 4-0 at home to McDons who haven’t won away since I don’t think and were playing the likes of Greg Halford, Kelle Roos and Chris Maguire, who have either gone or are going shortly.

Evans brought in a number of players on one-year contracts so my theory is that he saw the end when he was told he wouldn’t be allowed substantial funds for transfers. He said in pre-season that this year would be different — quality not quantity — which didn’t materialise. He also brought in Eric Black, which in my opinion was a mistake due to his track record. But maybe he saw what was coming and thought Black might get his job if he left (jobs for the boys)?

All in all, opinion was divided when Evans and Paul Raynor left. People still remember fondly what he did in the three years previously, and rightly so, but cracks were showing and rumour has it that his relationship with the chairman had faded rapidly due to various reasons. These included going off the see his old mate Darragh McAnthony at Peterborough to talk about the manager’s job while the chairman was on holiday, differences in opinion over wage budgets for players (namely Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, who is now back playing at Norwich) and - the main reason I think Evans left — because of his reluctance to give any time to the youth and academy structure, which is why Neil Redfearn came in.

What did you make of the Redfearn appointment?

RM: I was really enthusiastic about his appointment having seen the work he had done at Leeds both in the academy and at first team level under very difficult circumstances working for under a very difficult regime.

Obviously the line coming from the club was that he would bridge the gap between the first team and youth team, which is such a long-term thing, and he has made steps to rectify that by bringing in Andy Hughes as development coach. His signings have been a mixture of older and younger heads, bringing in Stephen Kelly and Leon Best to add numbers to the squad. However, both are injured now so we may not see them again but they, Kelly especially, steadied the ship and helped up pick up some results.

There are bits of Redfearn’s reign that I have questioned, including overly negative tactics at places like Derby and Middlesbrough, where we were not expected to get anything but both teams could have been got at on the day if we’d have had a go with two up top, especially later in the games. I also wasn’t very keen on him continuing to come out in the press after a defeat and state that “these aren’t my players”, hardly a motivational tool for the lads in the team. But generally you can see improvement in the team, especially at home (we’ve won our last three games with no goals conceded). Even the players who weren’t his players are playing well and there seems to be a togetherness back in the squad.

How has he done so far and what has he changed?

RM: Well for a start he changed his touchline attire! He’s now back in a tracksuit having wore smart dress for the first few games, which we didn’t win. To be honest it was a bit of a baptism of fire. We didn’t win our first six games under him but we were up against Derby, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Burnley and Brentford, so weren’t expected to get much either.

It’s hard to tell what he’s done differently because we’ve been so inconsistent but obviously his sideline demeanour is so different to his predecessor so we could be getting more decisions go our way. The football is mixed based on who we are playing, which shows some forward planning, and I would say we are passing the ball a bit more and he is encouraging our centre-halves to come out with the ball and our full-backs to get forward more. He’s also had to clear a bit of the dead wood out, with certain players inherited being told they can find new clubs (Ledesma, Halford, Bowery to name but three).

Any significant incomings or outgoings expected this month?

RM: Well we’ve been promised a few incomings from day one as Redfearn has told us on more than one occasion that some of the lads here are not good enough and the others need help. I worked out the other day that I think we’ve got around ten to 12 players under contract for next season so if we can stay up this year it would be massive with the quality and quantity we have got.

There’s talk of Luciano Becchio rejoining us if he’s fit enough. Reports are that he’s fit and a lot leaner than he was when he spent a month with us last season, but the real reinforcements are needed in midfield where we are desperately short (we could have a couple in before the weekend). Redfearn has stated he’s after a wide player and we have just brought in a new right-back from Man City, Shay Facey, to plug the gap left by Lewis Buxton, who can’t play again for us due to terms of his contract which means he would trigger an extension if he played again, so that tells us what he thinks of that particular Evans signing. We won’t be splashing the cash this month that’s for sure.

There should be a few leaving — Halford has been told to find a new club to have Twitter battles with (although he has cut off his top knot I have been told so that’s a start!) along with numerous others and I imagine some out of contract in the summer will leave early having barely featured.

Strengths and weaknesses in the current team…

RM: Recently our defence and goalkeeper have been our strength, especially at home. If Lee Camp and Kirk Broadfoot had been playing from the start of the season then we may have been higher in the table.

Apart from his howler at Leeds last week, Camp has been outstanding and has a real affinity with the fans. His shot stopping is top notch and everything about him is professional and he is 100 percent better than the clown we had in the net at Loftus Road in August.

Kirk Broadfoot has been made captain and what a leader he is. Not the quickest but seems to have gained half a yard of pace but he’s commanding and has become the stand-out player for us over the last few months.

We’ve chopped and changed with the forward line, with Danny Ward being a favourite of Redfearn’s, but Matt Derbyshire has just made a goalscoring return to the team so may be a threat if we play two up front. Grant Ward on the right side of midfield has been immense and really adds energy and quality to that side of the pitch and watch out for Joe Mattock and Joe Newell on the left-hand side who are very accomplished on the ball.

Are you staying up? If so, who is going down?

RM: When you asked me in August I was pretty sure we would be going down due to the financial clout of many of the other teams. However, for the last few months I haven’t seen any team rip us apart as such (apart from Ipswich) and I strongly believe that we will beat the teams around us in order to stay up, as well as picking points up against higher teams such as Tuesday night against Brighton. There are definitely four worse teams that us — MK Dons, Bolton, Charlton and Bristol City and we have them all to play soonish so I think we’ll be fine.

Considering the upheaval we’ve had and the players at our disposal, if Neil Redfearn keeps us up it will be a massive job well done and we can only look positively to next year.

Pictures — Action Images

Photo: Action Images

TacticalR added 11:15 - Jan 15 Thanks to Ross. I had the impression that Neil Redfearn had steadied the ship at Leeds, so I am surprised to hear he has been so outspoken so early on about the shortcomings of the squad at Rotherham. Even though we won convincingly at Loftus Road, I thought Rotherham looked a good footballing side (even under Steve Evans). Of the Rotherham players that have played for us, Ledesma is an eternal enigma and Camp is a good player if he can get himself right.

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