Rotherham United boss waits for slice of away fortune as he prepares to tackle Middlesbrough's 'unbelievably fantastic squad'

Rotherham United, by common consent, were out-footballed for the best part of 90 minutes by Middlesbrough, who boasted 71 per cent possession and mustered 20 goal attempts in a one-sided game at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.

Despite a clear imbalance in most statistics you could choose to look at, Rotherham won the most important one and triumphed 1-0 with their only effort on target - a fortuitous attempt from Cohen Bramall which was intended as a cross, but caught out Boro keeper Tom Glover and sailed into the net.

Given the bad luck they have suffered at the hands of officials or in terms of their crippling injury list in 2023-24, no-one at Rotherham was complaining and why should they.

On the road, the Millers are waiting for their slice of luck - with the season now into the second half of January.

Unbeaten on their last three visits to the Riverside - where they have not so much as conceded a goal - the Millers are mindful that plenty must go right for them this afternoon against a Boro side stung by events in South Yorkshire 25 days ago.

After recording the first win of his tenure against Michael Carrick’s side, a victory by the Tees would comfortably trump that - United are without an away success in 14-and-a-half months.

Richardson said: "You can take confidence in any victory or performance.

"It will be a different game, totally. We are going away and I don’t think Michael will look at anything other than the game itself.

"They are very well coached and there’s rotations and penetrations in certain areas and finishing positions and they are also strong in certain areas.

"It’s up to us to maintain our levels and bring a competitive nature to the game and give a good account of ourselves.

"We have had some performances away. We possibly should have got a different result at Plymouth and Blackburn.

"I thought we were very good for 65 to 70 minutes at Leicester. It’s just building on what we have got.”

While the Millers have been waiting to make a breakthrough in the January transfer window, Boro have flexed their muscles to bring in a £2.5m midfielder in Finn Azaz and a vastly-experienced defender on loan in Luke Ayling, with Richardson acknowledging the task in hand this afternoon.

He continued: "You talk about the start they had. But I don’t think you are ever judged by the start, middle or end. You are judged by the whole season.

"They have got an unbelievably fantastic squad for the level and have got out in a tough window and spent millions of pounds to bring in players in and are loaning some very experienced players who have won this league.

"So you know the challenge and we go there knowing that, but we will go there and give the best account of ourselves that we can.”