Moores are keeping it in family to help lift the Millers

FOR the third and, possibly, the final time, footballer Ian Thomas-Moore is ‘playing for Dad’.

The pair were reunited six weeks ago when Ronnie, manager of Rotherham United, decided his son could be a major asset to the club’s promotion push.

A striker with a string of big money moves behind him, Ian had spent the last three seasons playing League One football for Tranmere Rovers, who sacked his father as manager in summer 2009. He had also played for the Wirral club as a teenager when Ronnie was assistant to manager John King.

While plenty in football have worked within this relationship down the years – including the Cloughs, the Fergusons and the Redknapps – few have done it quite so often.

With it comes a different sort of pressure as both have to prove there is no favouritism in team selection. Dressing rooms can also fall silent when a manager’s son walks through a door.

“I would be lying if I said it was easy, in fact it is difficult at times,” admits Thomas-Moore, who added his wife’s surname to his own after marrying two years ago. “But as soon as I arrived, I said to the boys ‘Don’t be worried about saying anything about him!

“I completely understand what it feels like when you’re not in the team and you are unhappy with the manager. When people are not playing in the team, they are unhappy and they are not going to be saying nice things about the manager but I am experienced enough to take that on the chin – so don’t be frightened to say what you think!’”

His father is aware of problems that could exist but that will not make his son’s life any easier.

“It’s only difficult if the lads take a dislike to the player,” the Millers manager told the Yorkshire Post. “I have got all the faith in the world in Ian but he gets no favouritism – if he’s playing badly, he won’t stay in the team.”

Off the field, the pair live virtually separate lives. Ronnie, who married again after splitting from Ian’s mother several years ago, lives in Rotherham, would like to see more of his grandkids but admits training and evening games often get in the way.

Ian, who lives in Warrington with his wife and three children, no longer needs to ring dad on a daily basis and says birthdays and Christmas parties can keep things ticking over.

Since joining the Millers, Thomas-Moore has been hindered by a hamstring injury which kept him out of action for four games. He was recalled in midweek at the expense of ‘star striker’ Adam Le Fondre with his manager insisting it would help recharge his batteries. Both players, however, are likely to start this afternoon against Bury.

Like his father, the son is a forward player but one who has always been completely different in style.

While Ronnie bundled over defenders and enjoyed challenging for balls in the air, Ian prefers to play ‘off the shoulder’ and uses his technique and added yard of pace to forge a path to goal.

During a career that has lasted 16 years, he has played top-flight football with Nottingham Forest and West Ham United, been involved in two separate million-pound transfer deals, and spent two years at Leeds United – so hardly needs to justify his credentials.

However, there is a whiff of greater modesty in the son than the father who, at 58, is regarded as a cult hero in this corner of South Yorkshire and led the Millers to back-to-back promotions a decade ago before surviving in the Championship for four seasons.

“I know that I am going to be selected now on my ability and not just because my father is the manager,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have liked to have done this as a young boy starting out in his career again. When I left school, I got a deal at Tranmere where he was the assistant manager and that made it harder in a lot of ways. But he couldn’t play the games for me and I was selected for the England Under-21s.”

Looking back, he feels a more selfish professional might have done things differently and stood up to managers who took full advantage of his versatility.

“My career started like a house on fire but I possibly moved to Nottingham Forest too early,” he says.

“I was only 19 and a couple more seasons in the Championship might have helped my development. But I have had three big moves – £800,000 to Stockport, £1m moves to Nottingham Forest and Burnley, and a move to Leeds which was another massive club.

“Every manager who has signed me will tell you that I am honest and give 100 per cent – but I think I may have been too honest at times. I am a striker but I have been played out wide or midfield where others would have stood firm and said that is the only position they want to play. Other players would have said ‘no’ but to me it is all about playing football and that may have been my downfall! I have scored about 140 goals but, if I had been different, I could probably have been pushing 200. I am not going to change now.”

Both Moores have key roles to play in chairman Tony Stewart’s plan to bring the good times back to Rotherham.

The Millers move to a new stadium in the summer of 2012 yet, by his own admission, Thomas-Moore is not intending to stick around long to enjoy the scenery.

Now 34 and entering the twilight of his career, he has seen the way football can push a manager or a coach to his limits.

Whether a telling statement on his own life or an ironic twist, the striker and parent plans to open a nursery with his wife.

“We have spoken a couple of times about it,” he revealed. “I am looking to see out this year and next and, if I am still feeling okay, I might think about doing another year. But I definitely wont be staying in football beyond that.

“I have seen some of the states my dad has been in over the years and it’s not a business I would like to stay in. It’s pretty cut-throat when you reach the ranks of manager and assistant manager and, the way things are going, its not a secure industry either.

“We have three kids and we enjoy working with kids so we are looking at buying a children’s nursery. It will be a total diversion from football.”

After three games without a win, the Millers are five points behind second-placed Bury ahead of todays’ game at Don Valley.

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