Rotherham begin their away campaign with a
trip down the M1 to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
They got last week's opening-day loss to MK Dons out of their system with a Capital One Cup victory over Cambridge and will head to the City Ground looking for their first Championship points of the season.
Here's five things to look out for in the game.
1) Can Jordan Bowery impress from the start
After fleeting glimpses of his ability from
the bench during pre-season and his match-winning strike against Cambridge in
midweek, Jordan Bowery could be set to start against Forest alongside Matt
Derbyshire. If he does it will be just his seventh Championship start for the
Millers and shows a leap of faith that manager Steve Evans is prepared to show
in him. For much of last season, Bowery was a passenger who Evans did not trust
to lead the line and, although he bagged a few goals off the bench, he came
nowhere close to repaying the £250,000 spent on him. But all the noises coming
out of New York this summer have been that this will be Bowery’s year and his
midweek goal will provide a boost to what is undoubtedly a confidence player.
If he starts at the City Ground, it’s his time to shine.
2) Ending the Forest hoodoo
When Rotherham last won at the City Ground,
England were still 11 years away from winning the World Cup, Guy Mitchell was
top of the charts with ‘She Wears Red Feathers’ and Anthony Eden was two days
into his new role as Britain’s Prime Minister. You have to go back to 1955 for
the Millers’ last victory at Nottingham Forest, with eight defeats and three draws
since then. It has been 18 games since the Millers last prevailed either home
or away and last season’s 2-0 defeat by the Trent was as disappointing a day as
any, as Evans’ men threw it away just before half-time. Evans is one for ending
hoodoos, though, with his spell in South Yorkshire littered with record-ending
wins and he may never have a better chance to end the Forest one than this
weekend. Dougie Freedman’s club, under a transfer embargo, have lost both their
opening games of the season and are there for the taking, surely.
3) Returning Forest players
At least three of Evans’ likely starting XI
are former Forest players, with two of them – Greg Halford and Danny Collins –
swapping the City Ground for New York in the summer. Both men were frozen out
under Freedman, with Halford sent on loan to Brighton and Collins making only
eight appearances. Matt Derbyshire is also a former Red and will be desperate
to bag on his old stomping ground. The motivation of the trio going back to
their old club could provide an extra yard in their play.
4) How will the Millers fare on the road
To put it bluntly, the Millers were terrible
on the road last season, winning just three times and the 15 goals they scored
was a divisional low. Although they were visiting some tough venues, which are
a far cry from League Two, there can be no excuses this season, they have all
been there and done it for at least a year. Evans tended to opt for a defensive
mindset last term, which contributed to the poor goal tally, meaning that after
conceding first on many occasions, there was often never a way back for them.
Evans’ men simply have to improve on the road this season and how they get on
at Forest, the way they set-up, the chances they create, how well they cope
under home spells of pressure could go a long way to indicating if they will
suffer another bout of travel sickness this time around.
5) Joe Mattock
At the minute he is a mythical
figure to supporters who did not travel to Scotland for the pre-season tour,
but Joe Mattock could be ready to make his first appearance of the season. The
former Sheffield Wednesday left-back has been on the road to recovery for four
long weeks after an ankle injury sustained in a friendly against Partick, but
after returning to training on Wednesday he could be in contention for a
Millers debut in the East Midlands. Evans will be keen to get him in his side,
not only because of his vast Championship experience, but also because it would
allow Joe Newell to push forward into a more attacking role, which he has
excelled at so far this season. That would probably see Aidy White drop to the
bench, where he could come off and exploit tiring defences with his searing
pace and willingness to run at defenders. If Mattock does play, though, it will
mean a third different defensive combination in three games already this season
and that is not conducive to a low goals against tally.
