McKenna to Field Strong and Competitive Team as Rotherham Visit in FA Cup Friday, 6th Jan 2023 18:28 Boss Kieran McKenna says he’ll field a strong and competitive side when Championship Rotherham United are at Portman Road in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday, but while using his squad. Town will be looking to make it through to the fourth round of the competition they won for the only time in 1978 for the first time since 2009/10. In rounds one and two, Town beat non-league sides Bracknell 3-0 away and Buxton 4-0 at Portman Road. The Millers make the trip to Suffolk having won just once in 12 matches, a surprise 1-0 local derby victory away against second-placed Sheffield United in early November, and sit 21st in the table, a point off the relegation zone. The game is a good chance for Town’s players, who are targeting a place in next year’s Championship, to see how they fare against a side from that division, albeit one familiar to them with the Millers having been promoted from League One after finishing second last season. “That’s the case and one angle to look at it,” McKenna said. “We’re familiar with most of their players, they were in this league last year and a lot of the players played against us last year. “Rotherham did fantastic last year to get out of the division and are now competing in the Championship. There’s that angle to look at, of course, to individually have a little marker for yourself. “It’s a game that we’re looking forward to. We know it’s a tough opposition, we know that we have other priorities in the season if we’re being honest and our focus needs to be on the bigger picture, and we’ve had a really busy spell so we’re going to have to use the squad. “There are certain players who have played almost every minute for months and months now who will use this as an opportunity to rest, but I also know that we’ll have a competitive team out and the boys will be hungry to show what they can do to put in a good performance and hopefully put ourselves into the next round.” While McKenna wants to rest some of those who have been playing week in, week out, at the same time he doesn’t want to give too many players a long gap between games with the Blues’ top-of-the-table clash with Plymouth a week on Saturday, 12 days after the 1-1 draw at Lincoln. “It’s definitely a balancing act, there’s no doubt about it,” he reflected. “It would be anyway with the third round of the FA Cup when we’re a team who is chasing at the top end of the division and have goals and aspirations in the league. “It would normally be a balancing act and that’s probably been exaggerated a little bit as well by the injuries first of all and then the illnesses we’ve had in the camp that means certain players have played more minutes than we would have wanted them to. We’re probably at the point where we feel like they need to have a little bit of a break. “So it’s a balancing act. Of course, we want to get a competitive team out to try and win the game and first and foremost to perform well as a team. Even on an individual basis to give those who are coming into the team the best chance to perform well. “So we’ll still have a strong and competitive team out, while also balancing out the fact there are certain individuals we feel will definitely need a rest.”
McKenna says Rotherham haven’t changed particularly despite long-serving boss Paul Warne departing for Derby in October and Matt Taylor being recruited from Exeter City. “There are a lot of similarities,” the Blues manager continued. “I think they’ve had a well-established style of play that has been successful for them for the last few years and I’m sure they recruited the new manager when Paul moved on with the same criteria and the same style of play in mind. “I think they still do the things that they did well in League One last year well. They’re physical, they can be aggressive pressing against the ball and they’re really good at getting bodies forward and getting bodies in the box and making you defend your goalmouth. So I think their attributes are still pretty similar.” In Freddie Ladapo the Blues have a man who knows Rotherham well having left the New York Stadium in the summer prior to joining Town. “I’ve spoken to him a few times this week and I think he’s still in touch with quite a few of the players there,” McKenna said. “He’ll be very motivated for the blue side to come out on top this weekend.” McKenna admits ideally he won’t want the tie going to a replay at the New York Stadium. “I think everyone would normally say that,” he said. “Of course, we want to win every game. Would we rather lose or draw? I think we’d rather draw. “We want to progress in the competition. The incentive is always there to win the game, but probably when you know there’s the replay and you’re at home in the first leg, there is the extra incentive if the game is tight and it is an incentive to really push for the win. That’s our mindset in every game, to be honest. “But I guess in cup competitions when you’re at home in the first round and you’ve got a big league campaign coming, there’s that extra push to really try and do it in the 90 minutes.” He added: “It would be nice to be through to the next round. Of course, we’re playing a team in the Championship and a team who did very well in this division last year. “But I don’t see it as a huge marker for us, to be honest. How we’ve arrived at the game and the condition of the squad and the nature of what we’re going to do with our selection, I don’t see it as this being a big marker of how we match up against a Championship team. “I see it as a good game for us against a tough opponent at home in the third round of the FA Cup. “We’ll give it everything we can and hopefully we’re in the hat and can pull out another big draw. But I think that would very much be a bonus at the moment.” Second-guessing McKenna’s side is all but impossible given the illness situation which has hit the club over the last couple of weeks, although is improving. The Blues manager may want to rest most of his regulars but could be forced to play some of them if more fringe players are unavailable or not 100 per cent. Vaclav Hladky ideally would start in goal with George Edmundson and Richard Keogh probably in McKenna’s thoughts to start at the back along with Kane Vincent-Young, although with Edmundson having been among those most affected by illness last week. Leif Davis was similarly unwell, like Edmundson the former Leeds man didn’t travel to Lincoln on Monday, and so will probably be rested, giving Greg Leigh a start on the left. On the right, Kayden Jackson or Kyle Edwards could get the nod with Wes Burns probably among those to be rested. In central midfield, McKenna said he was still to decide whether new signing Massimo Luongo would make his second Town debut from the start or as a sub at his lunchtime press conference, however, it seems likely the former Middlesbrough man will be given 60 minutes alongside Cameron Humphreys in order to rest skipper Sam Morsy and Lee Evans. In the number 10 roles, Edwards and Jackson could start if not utilised elsewhere with12-goal top scorer Conor Chaplin perhaps in the XI having come off the bench at Lincoln. Gassan Ahadme could be in line to come in as the number nine, which would be only his second start for the Blues since joining from Burton on deadline day. Some of the regulars left out of the starting line-up are likely to play a part in the second half from the bench.
Rotherham will be without centre-half Grant Hall (hamstring) and striker Georgie Kelly (calf), while midfielder Ben Wiles (ankle) and keeper Josh Vickers (shoulder) are long-term absentees. Manager Taylor says the Blues are a better team than in previous seasons. “They are a different animal from the last couple of years and are a serious contender in that league,” he told his club’s website. “It is a big football club as well, so as much as they are a league below, they are an ex-Premier League team with a big fanbase. “It is an FA Cup tie and a competition and one we feel passionate about. We want to use this competition to help the players take a little bit of weight off their shoulders and hopefully that will free us up to play our best football.” The draw for the fourth round will take place on Sunday ahead of the third-round tie between Manchester City and Chelsea from around 4.05pm live on BBC1, as well as @EmiratesFACup on Twitter and the Emirates FA Cup Facebook page with Emile Heskey and Karen Bardsley those selecting the ties. Town or Rotherham will be ball 32. Town have won 15 of the previous games between the sides, all of which have been in the league, eight have ended in draws, with the Millers having won 13, including the last four. The Blues have won only one of the last nine between the teams since winning 5-2 in South Yorkshire in November 2015 when Daryl Murphy netted a hat-trick. Town and the Millers have never previously met in a cup competition. At the New York Stadium in April with Rotherham on their way to promotion, Michael Smith’s 78th-minute goal saw the Millers to a 1-0 victory over the Blues, mathematically ending any remaining hopes Town might have had of making the play-offs. Town had the best chance of the first half, James Norwood scuffing wide at the far post, but the Millers, who had won only one of their last seven in League One, were well on top after the break with Smith striking the game’s only goal. In November last year at Portman Road, a goal in either half from Wiles and Shane Ferguson saw Rotherham to a comfortable 2-0 victory over the Blues, extending the Millers’ unbeaten run to 15 games and taking them to the top of League One. Wiles opened the scoring on 24 with a shot from the edge of the box with Ferguson adding the second a minute before the hour with Town never looking like getting back into the match. The tie will see Blues striker Ladapo face the club he left in the summer prior to joining Town having spent three years in South Yorkshire. Ladapo joined Rotherham in June 2019 and scored 41 goals in 78 starts and 41 substitute appearances. Millers winger Chiedozie Ogbene had a spell on trial with the Blues in January 2018 - along with his Limerick team-mate Barry Cotter - before joining Brentford. Saturday’s referee is Sebastian Stockbridge from Tyne and Wear, who has shown 52 yellow cards and two red in 19 matches this season. Stockbridge’s most recent previous Town match was the 3-2 home defeat by Swindon Town in January 2021 in which he yellow-carded James Norwood, Flynn Downes and one of the visitors. Prior to that, he was in charge of the 2-0 defeat at Accrington in October 2019 in which he red-carded Armando Dobra and Stanley defender Ross Sykes for an off the ball clash and booked Jon Nolan, Gwion Edwards, Toto Nsiala and two home players. He awarded a penalty against Nsiala which Colby Bishop netted and ruled out a Woolfenden effort which looked to have crossed well behind the line. Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Keogh, Burgess, Burns, Vincent-Young, Davis, Leigh, Morsy, Evans, Luongo, Humphreys, Edwards, Chaplin, Harness, Aluko, Ladapo, Jackson, Ahadme.
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