[themaclad]

Rotherham United v Preston North End

New York Stadium

23/9/2023 15.00 hrs

MANAGER

Matthew James Taylor (born 30 January 1982) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre back. He is the current manager of EFL Championship side Rotherham United.

Exeter City
Taylor was appointed manager of League Two club Exeter City, who he had previously captained, on 1 June 2018 replacing Paul Tisdale.[31] A bright start led to Taylor being nominated for the August 2018 EFL League Two Manager of the Month award.[32] Taylor voiced his disappointment at missing out on the EFL League Two promotion play-offs, the side missing out on a third successive top 7 finish by a single point.[33][34]

Taylor won the August 2019 EFL League Two Manager of the Month award following a strong start to Exeter's 2019–20 season, with the side winning four and drawing two of their opening six matches.[35] A strong set of results over the festive period meant Exeter finished 2019 in second place,[36] with Taylor himself being named EFL League Two Manager of the Month for December 2019.[37]

With his side ending the month in fourth position after achieving thirteen points from an unbeaten five matches, Taylor was again awarded the League Two Manager of the Month award for February 2022.[38]

Under Taylor, Exeter City won promotion to League One for the 2022–23 season after finishing second in the 2021–22 League Two table.[39]

On 1 October 2022, following a 2–2 draw with Bristol Rovers, Exeter confirmed that they had given Taylor permission to speak to Rotherham United regarding the vacant managerial position.[40]

Rotherham United
On 3 October 2022, Taylor was confirmed as the new Rotherham United manager, pending talks.[41] The appointment was made official the following day, Taylor signing a contract with the EFL Championship club until 2026[42] and was joined by his assistant, Wayne Carlisle, on the same contract terms.

LAST TIME OUT





MYSTICS MAC FORM GUIDE

MILERS 3 PNE 19

WE'VE MET BEFORE



IN AND OUT



BACK OF THE NET



https://www.themillers.co.uk/

https://forums.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum...lings.110/

THE JOY OF EX

JORDAN HUGILL



ANDRE GREEN



INTERESTING BITS

The town in great part occupies the slopes of two hills; that in the west is the start of a 3 miles (4.8 km) north-west crest topped by Keppel's Column,a folly; that in the east is a narrower crest alongside the Rother known as Canklow Hill, topped by a protected laid out public area, Boston Park, less than 500 metres east of and 80 metres above the Rother. The Rother here is between 32 and 34 metres above sea level.[59] The south scarp here is slightly higher still, the Canklow Hill Earthworks, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, one of relatively few in the borough, as pre-dating recorded history.

Rotherham's commercial town centre occupies the valley in between these hills on the navigable part of the River Don flowing from the south-west after it has turned approximately due north. The town centre is less than 0.5 miles (0.80 km) below and north of the confluence of the Rother flowing from the south. The Mid Don Valley continues adjoining towns in the north of the Metropolitan Borough.

[themaclad]

Who’s Available?

Top goalscorer Will Keane will miss the trip to Rotherham, but he could make a return from injury when PNE face West Brom at Deepdale in a week’s time.

Liam Millar, who pulled up late in the victory over Birmingham City, will be good to go again, with manager Ryan Lowe confirming it was only cramp.

Ched Evans, Emil Riis and Calvin Ramsay remain sidelined, while Ben Whiteman and Robbie Brady will be pushing for their first starts of the season.

Opposition Focus


Things haven’t got off to a great start results-wise for Rotherham United, with Matt Taylor’s Millers having picked up four points from their opening seven matches.

They head into the weekend following a 3-0 defeat to Millwall on Wednesday night, although their previous home fixture saw them come out on top against Norwich City.

There are a number of new faces in the Rotherham side this season and a few familiar to North End fans, including former PNE forwards Jordan Hugill and Andre Green.


Match Officials

allison_s_referee_2324.jpg

Referee: Sam Allison
Assistant Referees: Andrew Fox and Graham Kane
Fourth Official: James Linington

Sam Allison will take charge of a PNE match for just the second time in his career this weekend, with the first being a goalless draw against Hull City in February earlier this year.

[themaclad]

MACS VIEW

Still top but interestingly six points from fourth, won't last or will it, the thing about actually going top is usually it only lsts a week before normality returns this time it is different, a win tomorrow by the time we boot off against the Baggies could be a month in pole position.
Sounds like behind the scenes they are as one which apparently wasn't the case last season.
Enjoy it whilst we can 2400 head over the border to the land of the strange folk, your correspondents away day debut this season, what could possibly go wrong?

[themaclad]

Rotherham United 1 Hugill Preston North End 1 Lindsay

Rotherham United line-up: Johansson; Lembikisa, Humphreys (Revan, 45), Blackett, Bramall; Rathbone, Tiehi, Clucas (Nombe, 73); Green, Hugill (Kelly, 90+5), Onyedinma. Subs not used: Phillips, Eaves, Appiah, McGuckin.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, McCann (Whiteman, 71), Ledson (Stewart, 88), Brady (Millar, 71); Holmes (Frøkjær, 71), Browne; Osmajić. Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Bauer, Woodburn, Whatmough.

Attendance: 11,434 (2,419 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr S Allison.

This was on of those games we should have won but in the end settle for a point and think fair enough. On the road for the first time this season, back to the cooped existance that is a coach, the familiars are still on board, the train spotters, Special Forces, Bob and Transistor Man
Motorway tarmac and the usual queues, not what Canned Heat sang about but hey the M62/M1 combo is such a sexy route.
Mass away support in the away end with the steepest steps in British history, a bugger for those whose balance is buggered(me)
Traditional walk around the ground avoiding the strip search by walking in at the side by the river.
Decent sunny day as the teams came out.
Started well looked a danger although didn't really carve out any clear cut chances apart from Osmajic header at the back post which was well saved by the keeper, Milers had periods of play where the main aim was to hit Hugill's head in the box.
One down against the run of play when North End's defence seemed to have disappeared although if Lindsay had done his job the ball would have been in the river. Muscled off the ball byHugill the home side had a four on one advantage didn't need his team mates curled it round Woodman from 20 plus yards great finish, poor by us. Even though he is an ex player he celebrated the goal which is how it should be.
Parity was soon to come, a corner from Brady nodded in from close range by Lindsay from zero to hero for the tall centre back.
Mr Allison who had a strange afternoon blew for half time as Osmajic advanced on goal as a home player pulled his hamstring, that decision went down a storm on the away management and the away end were slightly perplexed as well.
Second very scrappy in parts but it was also noticeable we actually played better passing footbal than we had done in the last two wins.
Johannson made a fine double save from Ledson and Osmajic, but when we got into promising positions it was one of those days when we didn't get the final ball correct.
Millers created little and probably the scrappiness of the game suited them. Could have won it at the end when Blackett majestically planted a Potts cross against his own post but as I said take a point down to third however 20 points in 8 games is a great start to the season

Rotherham manager Matt Taylor:

"It was a good game of football. Things seemed to go against us at certain moments.

"They're a good team and you can see that.

"We had to rejig things at half-time and tried to go toe-to-toe with a very good team. I did not envisage having that defence in the second half, but it was a case of needs must. Tyler [Blackett] was what I want him to be - a man mountain.

"It was more of a structured game. It was not pretty for the first 20 minutes, but it was solid.

"It was not spectacular in any way, but it calmed a few bodies down. Then the game disconnects and space appears."

Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It's a sloppy goal to concede from Jordan Hugill. Probably not what we'd expect for him to shoot from that far out but I felt we could have dealt with it.

"To get back in the game through Liam Lindsay - there was only one team in it if you ask me. They huffed and puffed a little bit but lacked a bit of quality.

"But so did we. That little moment of quality and decision-making. A little bit of luck was on our side. We thought this would be one of our toughest games of the season and it was for different reasons."