Rotherham United legend Ronnie Moore weighs in on decision to replace Matt Hamshaw with Lee Clark
Rotherham United legend Ronnie Moore believes Millers players should apologise to outgoing manager Matt Hamshaw.
Following a 5-0 defeat to Peterborough United on Tuesday (March 17), the Millers board decided Hamshaw’s time as manager was up.
With the South Yorkshire club six points adrift of League One safety with nine games to play, Lee Clark has been installed as the new boss on a short-term basis.
The former Huddersfield Town boss last led Sudanese outfit Al Merrikh, who he left in 2022.
Moore, who has had two spells as Millers boss, has delivered a scathing assessment of the Rotherham’s current crop of players.
Ronnie Moore’s frank assessment
He told BBC Radio Sheffield: “It’s going to be tough. We’re soft-centred, I think. We haven’t got a leader. Not only in our box, in their box as well. No one wants to get a bang on the head, or a little cut, to put the ball in the back of the net. I think that’s our fault.
“I think the players that are left, they should be ringing Matt up and apologising for their performances.
“They can’t ring us up as supporters of the club - but they should do. They’ve woefully let the club down, let themselves down. It’ll be interesting to see what happens now.”
Replacing Matt Hamshaw with Lee Clark
Many were surprised to see Clark handed the reins given the amount of time he has spent away from the dugout.
The 53-year-old’s last job in English football was in the sixth tier, when he had a stint at the Blyth Spartans helm.
Moore was also caught off-guard by the decision and has admitted it is difficult to know whether the decision will pay off.
He said: “Matt stayed in it and tried to do his best, which is hard as a manager. He’ll know deep down, the lads he’s had to put out on that field aren’t good enough. But what can you do?
“The three centre-backs for me, yesterday (Tuesday), awful, awful defending. But he’s lost his job. All of a sudden, I thought ‘was he doing it until the end of the season?’. And then, completely out of the blue, Lee Clark all of a sudden got a mention. Where did that come from?
“It might be a good thing, it might be a bad thing, nobody will know, but he’s got nine games to get the best he can out of the players he’s got, which I tell you now, won’t be easy.
“He probably won’t know much about the players. I hope I’m wrong - because the last thing we want is League Two next year - but I just look where the leaders are. Who’s going to guide us through?
“To get beat 5-0, and two penalties in there which were ridiculous defending, how are you going to better that? Our defensive record is just awful. That’s the worry for me. You’ve got [Lenny] Agbaire, [Zak] Jules and [Jamal] Baptiste in there, that for me isn’t strong enough. We’re going to leak goals there. That’s going to be the problem.”