Peterborough United v Rotherham United: Jonson Clarke-Harris on swapping comfort for competition

The Rotherham United captain takes his team to Peterborough United on Saturday not 100 per cent sure of starting.

Manager Steve Evans – another on familiar ground – has been loyal to the 31-year-old since bringing him back to South Yorkshire, starting him in eight out of 10 League One games and both League Cup ties.

But Sam Nombe has scored in the last two games – and Evans has already told him he will find the net in this one – and two Football League Trophy goals for Jordan Hugill in midweek means the Millers have options at the business end of the field.

"That's what we need as a squad, as a team," says Clarke-Harris. "Players are constantly pushing each other in training, in games. You do well, you keep the shirt – that's how the boss has things around here.

"We've got four really good strikers at this club (on-loan Esapa Osong also scored against Newcastle United's under-21s on Tuesday), who can all score over 20 goals this season.

"I would rather we all chipped in to get the job done come the end of the season rather than like I've had previously where one player's just run away with it (the top-scorer's title) and scored 40 per cent of the goals for the club.

"It's nice to spread it out."

Although he only has three so far this term, breaking the 20-goal barrier remains Clarke-Harris target – albeit he is coy about by how much.

He did that for Posh in 2020-21 (33 goals) and 2022-23 (29), which is why he hopes for a warm reception on his first return since his contract expired in the summer.

"I hope so," he says. "I don't see why I wouldn't. We had some great success together over the years. I've got some great memories.

"Hopefully at the start of the game I'll get a nice reception, and at the end I wouldn't mind a bit of abuse because I've scored a couple!"

Ivan Toney, Britt Assombalonga, Dwight Gayle, Leon McKenzie, Aaron McLean, Craig Mackail Smith – Peterborough have had some formidable 21st Century strikers and 87 goals in four seasons puts Clarke-Harris in that bracket. By the end, he felt his time had run its course.

"I wasn't sad at all," he says of his departure. "I think my time was up there. The club were moving in a different direction, which I fully understood. I wanted another challenge.

"I feel like I got a bit too comfortable there – too comfortable in how I was working, the type of goals I was scoring. It was starting to become a little bit predictable for me. I wanted to test myself and that's why I decided to sign for Rotherham United."

It is fair to say the start of Clarke-Harris' second spell has been a test.

Just as he is a serial League One goalscorer, the Millers are regular promotion winners in the third tier. Not since 2005-06 have they spent a season in it without going up. Add in Evans' track record and a welter of signings who had also been there, done that and got the promotion winners T-shirt and everyone was expecting Rotherham to do it again.

What they were not expecting was to be 17th after 10 matches.

It does not rule out promotion – not when beating Posh puts them in the top nine – but it was vital Clarke-Harris and co held their nerve.

"It's taken a bit of time for us to get going," he reflects. "Hopefully things are starting to fall into place.

"You can't win anything in the first 10 games, just points. As much as it looked bad three games ago you could see it was a work in progress.

"We've worked hard on the training pitch and you can see it all coming together.

"We've got momentum now, we've won ugly at Cambridge with near enough the last kick of the game.

"Hopefully now we can start scoring goals early in games and taking it to teams rather than being a goal down and on the back foot, getting an equaliser and pushing on. It would be nice to go one, two up.

"Sooner or later with the chances we're creating I wouldn't put it past us to start getting big numbers against those teams."

Rotherham have won their last three games in a row, getting two monkeys off their back with a first away win and first back-to-back victories in near enough two years. It feels like it has the potential to lift a weight off the club's shoulders, although games against Peterborough then Wrexham's A-listers could just as easily drop it back on.

The mood, though, is positive, and Clarke-Harris is right on message.

"It was nearly two years without an away win and we've ticked that off now so there's no excuse for us not to try and beat more teams away as well," he says.

We are about to learn a bit more about what this squad is made of.