Bradford City v Rotherham United: Matt Hamshaw feeling heat - just as Steve Evans did before Millers' last Valley Parade visit
AKIN to Rotherham United's previous visit to Valley Parade 417 days ago, their manager arrives under a fair degree of scrutiny from nonplussed supporters.
For Steve Evans in November 2024, read Matt Hamshaw in the present.
Evans and his Millers players had been firmly in supporters' bad books after a dreadful derby defeat at Barnsley, which drew withering criticism.
Rotherham's 1-0 win in an EFL Trophy game in Bradford, where the only ‘live’ issue surrounded who would top their northern section group, was not massively consequential. But given earlier events, it was grasped at by Evans.
Hamshaw’s side arrive on the back of six successive defeats. There has been much soul-searching of late for Rotherham, with chief executive officer Paul Douglas speaking with the press in an extensive interview on all club matters this week.
The beleaguered Millers manager, whose side have been low on numbers and not just form of late, received the club's backing.
But he will also not need telling twice that the results surely have change soon, with Rotherham, his club, currently stuck in the bottom four.
Hamshaw said: "People asked me (recently) - I've forgotten what game it was - 'Look, you're under pressure'.
"I give the answer that when you're a player - or anything in life - you're under pressure and that pressure has made me successful so far in my short football coaching career.
"But look, I want to be here. I want to continue. I want to give my best. I understand the club and the fans. I understand the fans also going: 'well, results aren't good enough' and they're not."