Evans is loathe to compare his Millers side to the one that stayed in the Championship for four years under Ronnie Moore in the early 2000s, but Moore’s side managed to register back-to-back wins in each of the three seasons they survived, falling short in their relegation campaign of 2004/05.
10:16:00
Rotherham aiming to end 18-month wait for successive wins
Rotherham go into Saturday’s
clash at Birmingham trying to achieve something they have not managed since April
2014 – win two league games in a row.
When QPR loanee Tom Hitchcock
scored a special hat-trick to cap a heroic come-from-behind victory at
Gillingham and keep the Millers’ League One promotion push going, little did
anyone know that that would be the last time they won successive matches.
Indeed, at the time Steve
Evans’ side still had a sniff at automatic promotion, but their remaining games
of the regular 2013/14 campaign yielded inconsistent results as Evans settled
for the play-offs and prepared accordingly.
Then, in much more
illustrious surroundings last season, the Millers went the entire campaign
without registering back-to-back victories.
That particular stat should
come as little surprise, as Evans’ men found it difficult enough to win one
game, never mind two in a row, as they registered 11 victories throughout the
46-game campaign.
They came close on several
occasions, but were never able to beat their best sequence of two wins in three,
with the middle game a draw on two occasions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly
Blackpool were the only other team to fail to record that achievement last
season, though other relegated sides Wigan and Millwall both managed it.
Evans is loathe to compare his Millers side to the one that stayed in the Championship for four years under Ronnie Moore in the early 2000s, but Moore’s side managed to register back-to-back wins in each of the three seasons they survived, falling short in their relegation campaign of 2004/05.
It was that inability to
string two or more wins together last season that ultimately ensured the
Millers were never far from danger and Evans will be keen to put that right
this time around, especially after the nightmare start they endured.
That’s easier said than done
of course, especially in this season’s division, where a game against a former
Premier League outfit or a side spending millions on players is only a week
away.