Rotherham boss Steve Evans spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One clash against Carlisle at the New York Stadium tomorrow afternoon, Evans first talking about a long journey for the Millers:
“This is a football club where the last 15 months especially has been a fantastic journey. If this journey has got 50 stops that we are on, we are on about stop number 14, we have got a long, long way to go. The journey gets more exciting with every week the season goes by, every time we win a game we surprise some teams, every time we go and get three points it pushes us nearer to that play-off group.
“Let’s go back 12 months to where we were, I think a year ago we were in ninth position in League Two and a number of points off the play-offs. Everyone was saying that it had all gone pear-shaped and wasn’t going to happen, my decision to leave Crawley was a bad one etc. etc. So, when they spent the whole of the summer being sick we spent the whole of the summer getting ready for League One.
“It has taught us that we had an excellent squad in League Two last year, which we always knew, and it also taught us that we have got some players who are capable of playing at the top end of League One. We need to prove that on Saturday because we are going to play a side that is in my opinion, since Graham Kavanagh has gone in, he has changed one or two things and in the main until they weakened their team going to Fleetwood they have been very impressive.
“By all accounts they are playing a bit more and they’re looking a little more dynamic in games and that’s what he was like as a player, going at 100mph with great technique and ability. He’s taken them from worrying about relegation to safely in mid-table and now looking at the play-off group like the rest of us. I think he has changed one or two people around, which is always about opinions, and he has got them playing a slightly different system at home compared to away.
“When you look at the balance of their squad I think they are strong all round, defensively strong, Mark Gillespie is excellent although he is injured so they have brought a good loan keeper in in Ben Amos. They are strong across the back, they are big and strong upfront, they have got a couple of big lads up there that will never stop working hard, running channels and have a fight for possession. Then they have got some boys in the middle of the park that can play, so it is a collective thing with them rather than individuals.
“I am sure the Carlisle fans that travel will give Adam Collin a wonderful reception, response and appreciation for his time there when he goes to their end of the ground. I know what he thinks about that football club and I think it was a heartbreaking decision for him to leave there. I know he has still got a lot of affinity and good friends and family who watch Carlisle on a weekly basis.
"He did great for them, a couple of Johnstone’s Paint finals at Wembley and a tremendous run when they almost got in the League One play-offs. We may ask him the odd specific question on them about one or two players but we have done our homework on Carlisle, and you know sometimes as a manager that what a player tells you is completely black and white to what is reality because they were their mates. I suppose our defenders might ask him one or two things, but other than that Adam just has to concentrate on his own performance.”
In team news for the Millers they have one player definitely absent and a couple of others lacking match fitness. 19-year old midfielder Mitch Rose, younger brother of Tottenham’s Danny, being out for the season after knee surgery on a torn tendon in September, while winger David Worrall and right-back Mark Bradley have not been long back in training since suffering short-term groin problems.
Aside from those three players though, Rotherham do have Kari Arnason back available, the centre-half having missed their 3-0 win at Stevenage last weekend as he was away on international duty with Iceland. Then finally the Millers have this week signed 21-year old Wigan frontman Nouha Dicko on a short-term loan deal from Wigan Athletic which runs until the New Year.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Mark Brown from Hull and he will be assisted down the lines by Michael Denton from Todmorden on the Lancashire/West Yorkshire border and Steven Meredith from Mansfield. Meanwhile the fourth official is Nigel Smith from Clay Cross in Derbyshire.