The first round of the Carling Cup – can we repeat last years heroics?

Rotherham United 

Current League Position: 9th (league 2)

Leading Scorer: Warne (1)

Manager: Mark Robins

Kit home: Red & white shirts/White shorts

Kit away: Yellow shirts/black shorts

Last game: Rotherham Utd 1-0 Accrington Stanley

Quotes from the manager: From the Rotherham Star "There are people who made us favourites before Notts County began splashing all the money but I bet they'd never seen us play. But we want to be up there with the favourites and we want to go out and be able to prove we can do it.”

"It's a great draw, as attractive a tie as we could get and against a manager who will take that club forward (speaking about Nigel Clough)"

Current Millers Squad:

No. Position Player

1 Keeper Andy Warrington

2 Defender Dale Tonge

3 Defender Jamie Green

4 Midfield Danny Harrison

5 Defender Ian Sharps (captain)

6 Defender Nick Fenton

7 Midfield Michael Cummins

8 Midfield Jason Taylor

9 Striker Tom Pope

10 Midfield Nicky Law

11 Defender Stephen Brogan

12 Defender Marc Joseph

14 Defender Mark Lynch

15 Midfield Kevin Ellison

16 Midfield Paul Warne

20 Striker Ryan Taylor

22 Striker Drewe Broughton

24 Defender Andy Nicholas

25 Defender Pablo Mills

26 Defender David Haggerty

29 Midfield Andy Liddell

30 Keeper Jamie Annerson

-- Striker Adam Le Fondre     Unavailable

The Rams

Quotes from the manager: From the Derby Telegraph; "Rotherham are an extremely good team and these are the sort of ties, the tricky ones in the earlier rounds, that you have to get through to even stand a chance of getting to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and even Wembley."

On Leacock & Barker; "Shaun will be on the bench providing he has no reaction after training with us for the first time for a couple of weeks. It will be nice to get him on the bench against one of his old clubs."

"Dean has done a little bit of training and we will probably name him on the bench as well. We have a friendly against Notts County tomorrow, so he will probably play in that.

"He is coming on and just to get his name on the team sheet will be a bonus for us and for him as well."

Current Rams Squad

No. Position Player    

1 Keeper Stephen Bywater     

2 Defender Paul Connolly (captain)

3 Defender James McEveley    

4 Midfield Paul Green  

5 Defender Miles Addison (vice-captain)  

6 Defender Dean Leacock       On-Bench

7 Midfield Lee Croft   

8 Midfield Robbie Savage     

9 Striker Rob Hulse    

10 Midfield Kris Commons      International duty

11 Midfield Gary Teale

12 Striker Chris Porter      

13 Keeper Saul Deeney  

14 Defender Shaun Barker      On-Bench

15 Striker Luke Varney

16 Midfield Stephen Pearson  

17 Defender Jake Buxton      

18 Midfield Ben Pringle      

19 Midfield Giles Barnes      Injured

20 Midfield Steve Davies     

21 Midfield Dean Moxey

22 Midfield Arnaud Mendy     

What the Bookies think

Home Win: 9/4

Draw: 12/5

Away win: 23/20

First Scorer: Steve Davis 6/1

Information for travelling fans

Driving: Firstly, Rotherham are playing the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield at the moment so don’t go to Rotherham. Take the M1 North to Junction 34 for Meadowhall.  Take the A6178 towards Sheffield until you reach the stadium on your left. The nearest train station is Meadowhall from where you can get the Tram. You can also get a Tram from Sheffield.

Parking: There’s plenty of street parking around the stadium or you can park at PiC toys on Worksop Rd for œ3. .

Drinking: There are a couple of pubs outside the stadium however the Cocked Hat is for home fans only. The Faras does allow in away fans. The other pubs in the area are reported to be less welcoming by footballgroundguide.com apart from the Carlton on Attercliffe Rd

Mick’s Prediction

I hate these banana skin games against lower division teams. We are expected to win and win well and everything otherwise is a ?shock?.

Managers understandably want to rest players and we have the ridiculous situation of our best player being away on international duty despite only playing 45 minutes of football.

That said, we did well in this competition last year and it took Manchester United to stop us!

Last Saturday saw the unveiling of Nigel Clough’s idea of how derby should play and for long periods it looked good. Buxton looked composed at centre half and not out of his depth. He was exposed for pace a couple of times but Miles Addison was there to back him up.

Addison was the man of the match for me and looked imperious moving forward with the ball. If he can avoid injury and keep developing his game he could be what we’ve needed at Derby since Igor Stimac left - a top class centre half.

Pearson Green and Savage looked to be marshalling the centre well though some of the balance was lost when Green went off. Pearson looks to be recovering some of the confidence that could make him a real asset to the team. He needs to be more authorative on the ball rather than losing his nerve.

Probable team: Bywater, Connolly, Buxton, Addison, Moxey, Pearson, Savage, Mendy, Teale, Pringle, Davies

Subs: Deeney, Barker, Leacock, Varney, Croft ,Green  

Prediction: Rotherham 1-2 Derby

Photo: Action Images

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