In 2024, matchday at Rotherham was an occasion. New York Stadium was always packed; a 9,000-strong living tide, swelling and breaking in chants. The decibel reader was working overtime.
They even had new fans turning up; twenty-somethings to compliment the old-timers who remembered the days of Big Dave Watson and Ronnie Moore. Terry Canadine, secretary of Mature Millers, a group of over-50s supporters, felt honoured that a new generation was finding joy in the club that had carried him through so many years of his life.
For years, the club had lived precariously, yo-yo-ing between the Championship and League One on an almost season-by-season basis. In fact, you could see the Rotherham of the past decade as a kind of footballing equivalent of the cha-cha-slide. It’s almost tediously repetitive to lay it out. In 2017 the club was relegated to League One, a demotion swiftly remedied with 2018’s promotion, via the play-offs, and then just as swiftly undone, with another relegation in 2019. In 2020, Rotherham dusted themselves down, girded, and again won promotion. This was (of course) followed by relegation in 2021.
Again undeterred, they won promotion in 2022, before 2023, when something quite remarkable happened: Rotherham managed to avoid relegation from the Championship, finishing in 19th place. No such luck in 2024, when they were relegated again.
But today, Rotherham fans might look back misty-eyed on those biennial relegations to League One. Because from September, Rotherham will be a League Two team. Defeat to Wigan on 14 April confirmed that fate. How did it go so wrong?
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