Rotherham suffered the unfortunate fate of becoming the first team in the English Football League to face relegation this season after a narrow 1-0 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Plymouth Argyle.
Bali Mumba’s goal added a spark to an otherwise lackluster first half, sealing Rotherham’s fate and ending their two-year stint in the Championship with five games remaining.
Despite a valiant effort from Rotherham keeper Viktor Johansson, who made several crucial saves, Plymouth’s substitute Ben Waine came close to extending their lead, hitting the post late in the game, as Plymouth celebrated their victory, ending a six-game winless streak.
The win not only secured relief for Plymouth from their own relegation concerns but also elevated them to 19th place in the Championship, four points clear of the relegation zone. For Rotherham, the 19-point gap to 21st-place Birmingham City proved insurmountable, sealing their return to League One with only 15 points left to contest.
Under interim boss Neil Dewsnip, Plymouth made significant changes to their lineup, opting to revert to earlier squad members. Despite a subdued first half, Argyle managed to create better scoring opportunities, with Mumba’s well-taken goal providing them with a deserved lead.
As Plymouth’s confidence grew, Rotherham found themselves increasingly reliant on Johansson’s heroics to keep them in the game. Despite a few promising chances, including an unmarked Cohen Bramall hitting the side netting and a Sebastian Revan shot saved by Plymouth’s Michael Cooper, Rotherham’s hopes dwindled.
In the end, Rotherham’s fate was sealed as Johansson’s efforts weren’t enough to prevent relegation, marking the end of their Championship campaign in disappointing fashion.
Four wins and 26 losses in nightmare Millers season
Rotherham’s season has been plagued by disappointment, managing just four wins and finding themselves destined to finish at the bottom of the table.
Their struggles have been particularly evident away from home, failing to secure a single victory on the road all season and enduring a league win drought in away matches since November 2022.
Former manager Matt Taylor faced the axe in November when the team was four points adrift from safety. However, his replacement, Leam Richardson, couldn’t engineer a turnaround in fortunes, clinching only two wins out of his 21 league games in charge.
The team’s plight was evident early on as they slipped into the relegation zone on September 23rd and remained entrenched there for the duration of the season.
Taylor, who took over from long-serving Paul Warne in October 2022, successfully steered the club away from relegation in the previous campaign, breaking a streak of six consecutive seasons alternating between promotion to and relegation from the Championship.
The 2023-2024 season was anticipated to be challenging, leading to Taylor’s dismissal on November 13th, just two days after a humiliating 5-0 defeat against Watford.
When Richardson took over on December 11th, Rotherham had already plummeted to the bottom of the division, a position they held until the end of the season.
Now, Richardson aims to emulate Warne’s success by guiding Rotherham back to promotion, drawing inspiration from his previous achievement of leading Wigan Athletic to the League One title in 2022.
Rotherham United head coach Leam Richardson told BBC Radio Sheffield:
“We weren’t good enough tonight, I thought the game was very stop start.
“They shaded it in both boxes, which is the most disappointing thing, and I made my views clear at half-time.
“This club’s experienced it a few times, they’ve always come back stronger, I feel for the fans at the minute because they’ve had a really rough season.
“Myself and [assistant] Rob Kelly came in at the back end of the year and it was there for all to see – we’ve run around the country with 64% availability of the squad in the Championship and we’ve not really been able to get to work a lot with facilities, but that’s by the by, it’s something we need to improve on and need to address.
“But on the basis of right here, right now, with the emotion of results and the inevitable relegation, it’s a tough one to take.”
Plymouth Argyle first team coach Kevin Nancekivell told BBC Radio Devon:
“It’s been a tough week, a traumatic week for everybody at the football club, so to come and get three points is massive for us.
“It’s only three points, we’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we’ll enjoy tonight and then look forward to QPR on Tuesday.
“The boys that haven’t played were desperate and ready to go, so we were just trying something to see if we could get three points, which thankfully worked.
“I thought everybody contributed fantastically well. We’re a tight group, it’s a squad game and everyone’s going to have to play their part in the next five games.”
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