According to The Rotherham Advertiser "the year 2024 was not kind to the Millers and spirits have sagged to their lowest level since the club left Don Valley in 2012 to make New York its home."

Their relegation last year was spectacular. They finished bottom by eighteen points, having won just five games and lost twenty-nine. Their goal difference was minus 52. They suffered nine consecutive defeats in February and March and failed to score in nine of their last eleven games. When Steve Evans was appointed after relegation was confirmed in early April he became their fourth manager of the season. His first four games in charge produced no goals, but a 5-2 win over Cardiff on the final day seemed to offer some promise of a brighter future.

However, when 2024 ended they found themselves in seventeenth place in League One having won only six of their opening twenty-one games and lost nine. The excellent goal that Liam Kelly scored for them at The Valley in early September was their first goal away from home in over thirteen hours. Their long-suffering travelling fans were delighted but Chuks Aneke provided an equally fine strike to secure a draw. Rotherham's search for away success continued until they eventually broke their duck at Cambridge on October 1st - nearly two years after their previous win on the road.

However, the arrival of 2025 has at last seen The Millers' fortunes improve and they are unbeaten in their last four league games. Wins over Bolton and Lincoln (away) plus draws with Stockport and away at Huddersfield have seen them move up to 13th place, three points behind us. Jonson Clark-Harris is their leading goal scorer with six but he has not been in the starting eleven recently. Danger men are Sam Nombe and Malik Wilkes who is on loan from Sheffield Wednesday. Dillon Phillips should start in goal.

Charlton should be full of confidence after their spirited performance up at Preston on Tuesday. Nathan Jones purred:   "Keep in mind they are a good Championship side, they're the mid-table in the Championship, we proved that we can, we are that level.”

In normal circumstances a draw at The New York Stadium on Saturday and a draw at Bolton next Tuesday would be creditable results for Charlton. However, given the current seven point gap to sixth place, it seems essential that they manage to win on at least one of the trips. There isn't usually much change in the second half of the season and the six teams that contested the play-offs last season were already in place by mid-January. That said, the example of Lincoln City should give us hope. On January 20th last year they were eleventh - fifteen points off the play-offs - but, by the time they kicked off their final game, they had made up the deficit and were sitting in sixth place. It was all in vain as they lost at Accrington while Oxford won at Exeter but it shows that it can be done.

Mind you, to achieve it they had to win twelve and draw four of their final eighteen games and that is the level of performance we now have to aim for.

Photo by Rhea Spencer-Newell