Rotherham
began life after Steve Evans with a televised 2-1 defeat to Burnley
on Friday.
Under
the caretaker management of Eric Black, the Millers put in a battling
performance but were ultimately undone by a lack of quality.
Here's
five things we learned from the game.
Greg Halford's Rotherham days could be numbered
Having
lost the captaincy following August's defeat to Fulham, things got
even worse for Greg Halford ahead of Burnley's visit to South
Yorkshire after he was left out of the matchday squad altogether. He
didn't appear to take too kindly to this and took to Twitter to vent,
criticising politics and then revealing his eagerness for the truth
to come out. The offending tweets were quickly deleted, but not
before they were drawn to the attention of Black. It's very possible
that Halford could be on his bike as Black vowed to deal with it over the next couple of days.
Eric Black won't go chasing the manager's job
On
his first outing as Millers caretaker, Black did himself no harm if
he is wanting to be considered for the permanent job as his side put
up a fight against a team destined for much bigger things. They had
more shots on goal than the Clarets and had more of the ball, and
possibly territory in the second half, but were undone by a lack of
quality, see more below. The Millers were certainly no weaker than
when Evans was in charge. However, Black has insisted he will not go
chasing the job and will do whatever the club ask of him. If the
Millers' search for Evans' replacement goes on longer than expected,
Black is a more than capable man to have at the helm.
Grant Ward can sill hit a football
Dubbed
as the next John Swift after a hugely impressive pre-season was
followed by a disappearance when the real action started, Grant Ward
again showcased his talents on Friday with a simply stunning
equalising goal. It was a goal, which will almost certainly not be
bettered this season, that was worthy of winning a game never mind
earning a draw. As he received the ball from Joe Mattock 25 yards out
there was no other option, so he created a yard of space for himself
and walloped it into the top corner. It was a repeat of something we had seen many times in pre-season and it came just minutes after he
was moved into a central position after struggling to fill the void
left by Norwich loanee Vadis Ojidja-Ofoe on the right. Under the
previous manager, he would almost certainly have been brought off, so
it was nice that the faith Black showed in him was rewarded.
There's still a worrying lack of quality
Apart
from Ward's moment of brilliance, the Millers were totally undermined
by a lack of quality in the final third and it cost them. For large
periods of the game, Black's men found an ability to get into
promising positions in the final third only for their final ball or
touch to let them down. Their passing was off the entire night, as
was their decision-making as several opportunities were wasted when
people decided to shoot instead of passing or vice-versa. The absence
of Odjidja-Ofoe was felt as Ward struggled on the right and offered
drifted into the middle. Creating chances was never really a problem
under Evans – it was the sticking them away that proved problematic
– but against the Clarets, the Millers never looked like scoring
and in the end needed a worldy to get the net bulging.
Burnley are real promotion contenders
It
was nothing new seeing an opposition full of outlandish quality
coming to New York and dominating, but Burnley looked a genuine
top-class side and, if they can maintain that level for the majority
of the season, then they will surely be top-six definites. Their
strikeforce oozes danger, as it should when one half of it cost
almost £10million, the presence of Joey Barton in midfield helped
them control the game in the first half and the threat of the two
full-backs, Tendiya Darikwa on the right especially, caused the
Millers problems all night. They have a goalkeeper who has just been
named in the England squad and a solid central defensive pairing, all
led by a manager who is attracting interest from Premier League
clubs. They look to be the real deal this season and the fact
Rotherham gave them a game should be taken as a huge positive.
