Aldershot v Rotherham United: Moore demanding defiance from his displaced Millers as they take toughest route towards promotion target

league two play-off: RONNIE MOORE is no stranger to Football League play-offs and feels Rotherham United have a tougher job than the rest if they are to win promotion.

The Millers travel to Aldershot today in the first leg of a League Two play-off semi-final with the winners playing Morecambe or Dagenham & Redbridge at Wembley on May 30.

According to Moore, the Millers will not have the benefit of home advantage in Wednesday night's second leg because they do not feel 'at home' in Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium.

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Designed for athletics rather than football, the 24,000-capacity stadium is usually empty on three sides and the pitch has never recovered from a U2 concert last summer.

It means there is even more pressure to get a positive result today at the Recreation Ground which is even smaller than the Millers' former home at Millmoor.

Nearly 6,000 fans will pack Aldershot's tiny Hampshire home which, until last season, played host to non-league football for 16 consecutive years.

Moore, who won back-to-back promotions with the Millers a decade ago, enjoyed success in the play-offs as assistant manager at Tranmere Rovers.

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But he also suffered play-off heartbreak with the Millers during his first spell in charge – losing a semi-final on penalties to Leyton Orient in 1999.

Moore said: "If we get through these play-offs, we will have done it the hardest way, without a doubt.

"No disrespect to anyone, but the Don Valley is not a football ground and home advantage is taken away from us through no fault of our own.

"It's very difficult for players to motivate themselves and go and play there. But it was the only place we could play after being forced out of Rotherham by the Millmoor situation."

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Despite the lack of atmosphere and the state of the pitch, the Millers lost only four league games at Don Valley yet missed out on automatic promotion because of nine home draws.

Moore says that Millmoor was always a far more intimidating place for visiting sides and played a key factor in the club's fairytale rise from League Two to the Championship at the dawn of the Millennium.

"What we achieved at Millmoor was absolutely unbelievable," he recalled. "You don't realise it at the time but, when you step back, you think 'bloody hell, did we actually stay in that division for four years against big Championship clubs?'

"It's massively different now to how it was before but the chairman is ambitious and wants to put things right as quickly as we can. We'll soon have a new stadium and a new training ground and things are definitely moving in the right direction. The players deserve full credit if we get promoted this season. We have been training in Doncaster, playing games in Sheffield, and our offices are in Rotherham.

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"When we go to Aldershot, it will be a tight little ground with a tremendous atmosphere. If you are not brave you can be done there but, in the play-offs it is all down to whether your players can cope with the pressure.

"Hopefully, there will still be everything to play for next Wednesday and we might get a 7,000 crowd. But it will still be very, very difficult to get an atmosphere. If we were bringing them back to Millmoor, it would be a completely different story. That's home advantage – and we won't have that – but we have dealt with it all season."

The Millers finished a point above Aldershot but lost 3-0 when the clubs met at the Recreation Ground last month.

Moore said: "We owe Aldershot for that one. People say football is a cruel game and that was a cruel result. It didn't show the amount of possession and chances we had and we aim to put that right."