DEFENDER Hakeem Odoffin has insisted nobody at rock-bottom Rotherham is resigned to relegation.
The Millers headed into this weekend with fewer wins (three) and fewer points (19) than any other team in the EFL – a record that placed the club 14 points adrift of a position of safety at the foot of the Championship.
But the South Yorkshire outfit pushed promotion hopefuls Ipswich all the way before succumbing in stoppage time during a seven-goal thriller at Portman Road on Tuesday night.
That followed an ill-deserved 1-0 home defeat to Watford last weekend, in which the Hornets converted their only on-target attempt.
Rotherham’s victories this term, meanwhile, have come against play-off challengers Coventry and Norwich, as well as Middlesbrough on Boxing Day when Michael Carrick’s men were strong top-six contenders.
Competitive
It might be clutching at straws but, with ten draws and nine odd-goal defeats too, Rotherham could legitimately claim they had been competitive in two-thirds of their contests prior to this weekend.
Having travelled to a third-bottom QPR team yesterday before hosting second-bottom Sheffield Wednesday next weekend, the Millers will have a clearer idea of their survival prospects when they travel to Coventry a week on Tuesday, but Odoffin argued: “As players, it’s our job to go into games with a positive mindset.
“We can’t get too low, just like you can’t get too high if things are going well and there have been positives this season as well as things we can learn from, so we go into the remaining games knowing we can get results from any of them. We’ll be going into every game trying to win and really focussed on getting as many points as possible.
“That never changes and I’m not thinking about the bigger picture at the moment. There have been good examples this season of how we can go toe-to-toe against clubs with much bigger budgets and we just have to keep that confidence and, then, I’m sure the results will come.”
The lack of a reliable marksman has been a key factor in Rotherh
