SOMETIMES appearances can be deceptive.

Whenever the name of Matt Hamshaw is mentioned in football circles, the phrase ‘good guy’ invariably accompanies it. Anyone who has spent time in his company would attest to that.

The Rotherham United chief is also a streetwise operator. To survive in the management game, you have to be. ‘Mr Nice’ has to possess a ‘Mr Angry’ side in his locker.

His players found that out at half-time in midweek when the hosts trailed 2-0 to Oldham Athletic in the EFL Trophy.

Rotherham United midfielder Kian Spence, pictured in action in the midweek EFL Trophy game with Oldham Athletic. The former FC Halifax Town netted the goal which started the fightback in a 3-2 home win. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe.

placeholder image — Rotherham United midfielder Kian Spence, pictured in action in the midweek EFL Trophy game with Oldham Athletic. The former FC Halifax Town netted the goal which started the fightback in a 3-2 home win. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe.

Some 193 days on from stepping out as Millers manager for the first time at Sixfields, the 43-year-old professes to have learnt plenty about the art of management since early spring.

Different from his previous life as a coach, for sure. Although he insists he was never just the ‘good cop’ whom most observers thought he was.

Hamshaw told The Yorkshire Post: "When you are a coach, you are picking players up.

"As a manager, you've got to know who needs an arm around them and who needs a telling off.

Rotherham United manager Matt Hamshaw, pictured on the touchline during Tuesday night's EFL Trophy game against Oldham Athletic. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

"Look, there's times where I have to give them a right big boot on the backside - and I do. I think that sometimes it can be misconstrued that ‘he's just a nice guy’, and I don't think people probably actually know me.

"I was probably the angry one a little bit when we were in the coaching staff before (at Rotherham).

"I know what this club means and I've spoken to players about this badge (this week) and what it represents and who we are and what it means to me.

"Look, I get in the players' eyes (they think) I'm talking about it as if it's Man United. But to me, it is my Man United.

"There's been certain performances and things that I can't accept and the fans shouldn't accept and it's happened more than I wanted it to."

When you leading not just a club, but your club, the disappointments sting more and you can take things home.

At the minute, Hamshaw is doing it tough, but is not one for complaining.

In what was always likely to be a transitional season, the Millers have had to cope with some wretched injury fortune in the opening quarter of the campaign. They currently reside in the bottom four.

Factor in form issues, a lack of a settled line-up, a historic problem regarding away form and little cash to throw about in transfer windows and it’s a scenario which would seriously challenge much more seasoned managerial figures than Hamshaw.

And then there’s other things as well.

He added: "It's tough and we're going through quite a bit as a family at this moment in time.

"I had a bit of personal tragedy, and it's hard, it's difficult, but people don't see that.

"I don't want sympathy, but people don't sometimes see that. And this job is my life and this club is my life and has kind of been my life since being a kid, so I just want it to succeed.

"And I want people to be happy, proud of the town and the club and everything it represents, so that as a weight as well that comes with it.

"But it's one I'm kind of enjoying, but I'm well aware that I need to put smiles on people's faces a bit quicker than what we're doing."

While managing your hometown club brings pressure, for Hamshaw, it will always be a privilege.

The Rawmarsh lad, who ‘lived and breathed Rotherham United’ as a kid according to his dad Phil - who used to smuggle him under the turnstiles at Millmoor - is more frustrated than anyone at events this season.

Proper people around the club and town continue to inspire him.

"There’s amazing people and people who've been really supportive', said Hamshaw, who famously once stepped out as a Millers mascot as an eight-year-old in the early 1990s.

"The chairman and board of directors have been really, really good and my members of staff have been a real help. And fans who I see in and around town when I go out for my run before a game and all the rest of it.

"Look, when you're local and you're a local lad, it's difficult to get away from.

"So even if I go for a walk, I bump into somebody... It comes with its own pressures, but it's pressures I'm enjoying."

On his maiden game in charge at Northampton at the start of April, a Millers win provided a 'ray of light' in the words of Hamshaw.

He could do with another just under six-and-a-half months on.