When you're Rotherham United playing in the Championship, there is
never going to be a time when the fixture list is overly kind.
But going into the final nine games of the
season, the Millers have been handed a bit of fortune with their last two
midweek away fixtures being switched to a Wednesday.
Tomorrow's trip to Nottingham Forest and
next month's jaunt to Fulham are both played 24 hours after most other teams
play in a full round of fixtures.
It means an escape from the shocking
Tuesday night record on the road that has cast a shadow of the Millers this
season.
Of their five away trips this term -
four in the league and one in the Capital One Cup - all of them have ended in
defeat at the expense of eight goals and just three going in at the other end.
It is a complete reversal of a two-year
run which saw them go 13 games unbeaten on a Tuesday night away trip in the
league.
That sequence, which began in August 2012,
ended in that disappointing night at Bramall Lane last April and there has not been
an away midweek win since.
The main potential reason for this turnaround in fortune is an obvious one.
The Millers are no longer playing the likes of Wycombe, Accrington or Colchester,
instead Watford, Reading and Blackburn have been among the opposition.
Not only have the defeats this season been against far greater
opposition, but they have come on the back of testing weekend games, three of which were
positive results.
Midweek defeats at Swansea, Bolton and Blackburn all came after
games at Millwall, Bournemouth and Ipswich respectively. Those three Saturday
matches brought in a seven-point haul.
The other two were after particularly difficult Saturday games, as
the 3-0 reverse at Reading came just three days after a drubbing by Middlesbrough,
which saw the Millers play over 45 minutes with 10 men, while the recent 3-0 defeat at
Watford came after Steve Evans’ men were given the run around at Wolves.
The switch to a Wednesday will hopefully work in the Millers’
favour, though recent results on that day have not been entirely favourable.
They have lost three of the last four games, though all were in
cup competitions.
The last time they played on a Wednesday in the league they were
victorious, though, as they beat Chesterfield in 2007.
There is an obvious downside to playing 24 hours later this week and that also involves the word Wednesday.
Playing at the City Ground on Wednesday gives Evans’ men one day
less to prepare for arguably their biggest home game of the season against
their local rivals Sheffield Wednesday.
If the Millers are to beat the Owls for a second successive season
at the New York Stadium, then they will need a similar sort of performance to
the one that emerged victorious in the Capital One Cup in 2013 – one of
high-energy and bluster.
And whether they will be able to reach those heights after a daunting trip to Forest remains to be seen.
Most people would bite the hands off anyone who offered a point at
the City Ground on Wednesday.,
Then they can
concentrate on Wednesday!
