Albion look to return to winning ways at bottom of the table Rotherham

Rotherham United v West Bromwich Albion; New York Stadium, Tuesday 12th December 2023, 7.45pm

Carlos Corberán takes his side to South Yorkshire on Tuesday evening looking to bounce back from two successive defeats. Their opponents, Rotherham United, have dropped to the bottom of the table as their near neighbours, Sheffield Wednesday, have found a bit of form, and they have only two victories all season and none since a 2-0 win over Coventry City in late October.

The Millers took the decision to sack manager, Matt Taylor, in mid-November and put his assistant, Northern Irishman Wayne Carlisle, in caretaker charge. Carlisle led them for four games with his best result a 1-1 draw at home to Leeds United in his first game in charge, the only match in the last seven that Danie Farke’s team have failed to win, while his only other point came courtesy of a 0-0 draw at St Andrew’s. They were beaten 2-1 at home to fellow managerless club, Swansea City, on Saturday but put up a spirited performance having gone down to ten men early when Daniel Ayala received two yellow cards in the opening 17 minutes.

On Monday, former Wigan Athletic boss, Leam Richardson, was appointed as Rotherham’s new Head Coach. While he is unlikely to be able to have a massive impact on the training ground before Tuesday’s match, his appointment is sure to give the Millers a psychological boost. Nonetheless, the Baggies should be good enough to earn all three points providing they play somewhere near their best.

On Saturday, of course, Corberán’s team were well below their best as they were beaten at Sunderland and lost another player to injury when Josh Maja was on the end of a very poor tackle by Dan Ballard. It is apparently an injury to the same ankle that was damaged at Bristol City earlier in the season but it is not clear at this point how long he will be out for. Matt Phillips, Daryl Dike, Martin Kelly and Adam Reach will all definitely be out while the return of Jed Wallace is not impossible but would be a surprise. One boost will be the return of Okay Yokuşlu who could not play at Sunderland having picked up his fifth yellow card against Leicester. He was definitely missed but it was an all round poor display from the Baggies, similar to the one they put in at Rotherham last season.

Pipa’s appearance off the bench to play as a left winger was something of surprise and given that it was his cross that was headed home by Thomas-Asante, it was also something of a success; I do wonder whether Corberán may use him there again. He had been advised to manage BTA’s minutes which is why he was not brought immediately on when Maja was injured on Saturday, and with limited attacking options available to him, the Baggies boss may have to be creative. It could be that the lack of options in forward areas may lead to a return to a back three with Pipa, perhaps, playing as left wing back.

We will, of course, have to wait and see, and hope that the players can put in a performance close to what we have come to expect in recent weeks and also complete the match without injury. We can but hope.

History

Albion first met Rotherham United on their way to a cup win in 1954. The Millers were the Baggies’ fourth round opponents and the “Team of the Century” dispatched them 4-0 at the Hawthorns on their way to that famous final when they defeated Preston North End at Wembley.

The Baggies first visited Rotherham United’s home ground some 30 years later for another FA Cup tie, this time in the third round in 1984. That finished 0-0 but the Millers were soundly beaten 3-0 in the replay in B71 a few days later. The first league meeting between the sides was in the 1992/93 season – the Baggies had been relegated to the third tier in 1991 and the Millers won promotion from the fourth a year later and the Baggies’ trip to Millmoor was their final away game of that wonderful season under Ossie Ardiles. The away end was partying having already secured a play-off place but they had to wait for the final few minutes to celebrate a goal, but ended up with two as Paul Raven and Bob Taylor both scored late on. Former Baggies striker, Imre Varadi, had been sent off for the Millers halfway through the second period.

The arrival of Ronnie Moore at Millmoor in 1997 saw Rotherham transformed into a side that loked capable of wining promotion to the second tier for the first time since the late 60s. They moved into Division One in 2001 and recorded their first ever win over Albion in November of that year with goals from Chris Swailes and Alan Lee either side of half time putting them 2-0 up before a late consolation goal from Darren Moore.

Albion recorded a comfortable 3-0 on their only subsequent visit to Millmoor in October 2003 and it would be another 15 years before the teams were once again in the same division. The Baggies’ relegation from the Premier League saw them visit Rotherham’s new home for the first time in December 2018. Darren Moore’s team were in fine form at the time and a hat trick from Dwight Gayle and a goal from Harvey Barnes saw them record a 4-0 victory.

Last season, of course, was a different story as the Millers recorded just their third win over Albion as Carlos Corberán’s team threw in one of their worst performances of his tenure losing 3-1 despite taking a first half lead through a John Swift penalty.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

7 Apr 2023 – League Championship
Rotherham United 3 (Hugill (2), Fosu-Henry)
West Bromwich Albion 1 (Swift (pen))

Last win

17 Dec 2022 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 3 (Wallace, Diangana, Thomas-Asante)
Rotherham United 0

Last win at Rotherham United

22 Dec 2018 – League Championship
Rotherham United 0
West Bromwich Albion 4 (Gayle (3), Barnes)

Albion’s Record against Rotherham United