Rotherham Preview
Rotherham, Daggers hosts tomorrow (Tuesday) are the last team that John Still's side have to meet in this season's League 2.
It seems strange going into the second week of February that the sides haven't met at all, but that's because of the intervention of the weather.
We should have been at the South Yorkshire Millers' temporary home - Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium - the week prior to Xmas, but that week heralded the first major snowfall of the winter and like lots of games since, at the 25,000 capacity, wide-open spaces of the Don Valley, the game felt victim.
With the club only having access to one of the country's largest outdoor arenas on match days, preparing for bad weather is just one of the problems Rotherham have in playing in their temporary home.
Not only do they have to compete with summer Rugby League - it's Sheffield Eagles RL club's home as well - and a venue for pop music concerts, both of which do untold damage to the pitch to the extent that three tonnes of sand have to be put on it during the close season.
Also with crowds of around 4,000-5,000, the Millers barely fill a small proportion of the vast bowl on match days.
In December, Rotherham took a major step to fulfilling the Football League directive that instructs them to be back playing in their native borough by October 2012, when they put in a bid for a brown field site, in Rotherham, that they identified as their new home and on which they want to build a 12,000-15,000 stadium.
By that time the Millers hope to be back in the Championship, where returned manager Ronnie Moore took them with successive promotions in 2000-01 and 2002-02.
Moore's entire League career has been spent with two clubs - Tranmere Rovers and the Millers - both of whom he gave yeoman service as a player, playing over 250 times for each.
When he lost his job as Tranmere boss in the summer, he was first man that Rotherham turned to when their own manager Mark Robins made the short hop across South Yorkshire to take over Barnsley, whom he has lifted from the relegation places to the top 10 of the Championship.
When the sides should have met originally in December, this game was a real six pointer, with Daggers and the Millers both in the top four.
Rotherham's form has slipped a little and last Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Darlington was the first time they have lost consecutive games this season, having lost the previous midweek to second placed Bournemouth, 3-1, in the last game played at Don Valley. Prior to that they had won their previous three games.
The Darlington result was particularly galling for manager Moore, as bottom-of-the-table Darlo have completed a shock and unlikely double over Moore's side inside a month.
The Liverpool-born boss has two players on loan from Premier League Blackburn in defender Gareth Gunning and midfielder Marcus Marshall in a side that relies on its goals from Adam Le Fondre, a £100,000 signing from table-topping Rochdale last summer, former boss Robins' last major purchase.
Tom Pope, another big money striker signing, from Dario Gradi's Crewe, has won his place back in the side after a poor start to the campaign and is keeping the much travelled Drewe Broughton, who includes a loan spell with the Daggers during the Garry Hill era, among the list of many clubs he has played for, on the bench.
Daggers will be desperate to arrest a very worrying slump of five defeats in the last six games and three successive losses that has taken them down to 10th in the table.
John Still made changes for the unlucky 1-0 loss to Northampton last weekend, bringing Darren Currie and Wes Thomas into his line-up and yet the side looked more dangerous when both had been replaced by Danny Green and Phil Walsh in the latter stages. Maybe, that will be a clue to the line-up that takes the field at the Don Valley Stadium.
Referee Karl Evans, from Leigh, takes charge of a Daggers game for the first time this season.
Likely line-ups: Rotherham: Warrington, Tonge, Sharps, Fenton, Gunning, Harrison, Mills, Cummins, Law, Pope, Le Fondre.
Dagenham & R: from:- Roberts, Ogogo, Doe, Arber, McCrory, Green, Pack, Gain, Spiller, Currie, Nurse, Benson, Thomas, Scott, Walsh, Vincelot.










