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Rotherham Utd History
2006-07 Season
23rd, relegated from League One
League Cup: 2nd round; Norwich City h. 2-4
FA Cup: 1st round; Peterborough United a. 0-3
JP Trophy: 1st round; Hartlepool United a. 1-3
Highlight:
5-1 win over Crewe Alexandra, 28/10/06
Low Spot:
1-5 home defeat to Port Vale, 10/3/07
Good:
Martin Woods
This left sided midfielder came on a free from Sunderland and looked a class act. Good on the ball, decent pace and telling distribution Woods was a real find.
Will Hoskins
16 goals in 27 games offered Rotherham a potential lifeline against relegation. In the end he only offered a financial lifeline as he was off-loaded to Watford to pay a few bills.
In Brief:
Starting with a ten point deduction for falling into administration this was always going to be a tough season for the Millers and so it proved.
The club managed to pick up reasonably frequent victories in the early stages and when they won four on the trot in October, culminating in a 5-1 thrashing of Crewe, they actually moved out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
This momentum could not be maintained, however, and the club went on a 14 game winless run from December which effectively sealed their fate.
In truth the club basically consigned themselves to relegation when selling two players to Watford, including the prolific Will Hoskins, in the January transfer window.
Hopefully the club can begin moving back in an upward direction from next season but financial constraints are still haunting the club.
Rotherham United Football Club came into being in 1925 when Rotherham Town and Rotherham County amalgamated.
Rotherham Town had been formed in 1870 and were elected into the second division in 1893.
After three seasons in the league the club failed to be re-elected into the second division and would not return.
Rotherham County, originally Thornhill United, were founded in 1877 and they gained entry into the second division in 1919.
In 1923 the club was relegated into division three north and remained there, as the new club, until promotion back into the second division in 1951.
The Merry Millers managed to retain this status for a creditable seventeen seasons before suffering relegation in 1968 under Tommy Docherty.
Five seasons later the club went down again for a first spell in the fourth division before enjoying a ten year revival under Jimmy McGuigan, Ian Porterfield and then Emlyn Hughes which saw the club rise back into the second division.
The division three title the club won in 1981 was a particular highlight. Not only did the Millers pip one of their neighbours, Barnsley, to the championship but the double they recorded over Sheffield United helped send them tumbling into the fourth division.
The following season Rotherham finished an impressive seventh in the second division. After a poor start the club had occupied a relegation place at the end of January before embarking on a club record winning spree of nine games which saw them rapidly climb the table.
The highlights of this campaign were undoubtedly their two meetings with Chelsea. Firstly the Millers thrashed the Londoners 6-0 at Millmoor before triumphing 4-1 at Stamford Bridge in the return in front of just 11,900 fans.
Who says that football in the eighties was all bad?
This exciting but ageing team, which included the attacking talents of John Seasman, Tony Towner, Rodney Fern and Ronnie Moore could not maintain this level of performance, however, although it was something of a surprise to see them relegated again the very next year.
The last twenty years have seen the club roller coast around the lower divisions and after a promising spell under the management of Moore are now back in League One.
The club has reached the fifth round of the FA Cup on two occassions in 1953 and 1968.
In '53 the club enjoyed a magnificent 3-1 win at cup holders Newcastle United before going down at home to Aston Villa by the same scoreline.
In 1968 they put out both Wolves and Villa before losing to the only goal in a replay at Leicester.
The Millers also made it to the first ever League Cup final in 1961 to meet Aston Villa. They won the first leg at Millmoor 2-0 before succumbing to a 3-0 defeat in the return leg at Villa Park.
The club did triumph at Wembley in 1996 in the Auto Windscreen Shield, beating Shrewsbury Town 2-1 with both goals coming from the on loan Nigel Jemson in front of a decent crowd of 35,235.
Hardly one of the games most glamorous clubs Rotherham perhaps lead the way in one respect. In the "celebrity fans" stakes they are surely in a league of their own thanks to the world famous Chuckle Brothers.
"To me, to you" comedy geniusses Paul and Barry make no secret of their love of the Millers, indeed they positively cram their shows full of references to their home town club, doubtless to a bemused audience.
We must prepare ourselves for a very strange next generation in the coming years I think.
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