Charlton Athletic v Rotherham United: Why the numbers game is adding up for Paul Warne and Millers

His Millers side, who head to The Valley on the back of an outstanding dismantling of Sunderland which took their unbeaten sequence to an impressive 11 matches in all competitions, currently possess the best xG expected goals ratio in League One.

No side has also taken more points than them in the division over the past six to eight games respectively with some eye-catching victories posted along the way against the likes of the Wearsiders, Portsmouth and MK Dons..

On his side’s xG divisional ranking of 1.91 goals per game – the best in League One – Warne commented: “I would be very disingenuous if I said I did not know that and I do remind the lads a lot.

“But at the end of the day, I do think football is quite a simple game and I do not think it is very complicated.

“From the outset in every single game, we try and win it and don’t sit behind the ball. On Saturday at 4-1, we were still making the lads press for every ball and tried to get more goals.

“But there are some statistics out there that drive me mental like people saying: ‘They had 60 per cent possession’. Bore off; you can have 25 per cent of that in your own goal area, it does not interest me.

“The statistic I like is how many attempts on goals you have inside the penalty box, not shots from outside the goal. They are the ones that matter and ones we push.

“We also push ones about clean sheets and how many attempts we allow the opposition to have on us.

“I worked for a very good manager who once said to me: ‘Look Warney, the only statistics that matter are the shots that you get off and the shots that you concede.

“Everything else is someone trying to justify their job’. They are sort of right.”

You have to go back to November 1982 for the Millers’ last victory at Charlton, a 5-1 success.

Last six games: Charlton WWLLWW; Rotherham WWDWWW.

Referee: S Oldham (Lancs).

Last time: Charlton 3 Rotherham 1, April 2, 2018; League One.