The Millers dropped into the relegation zone after a 1-0 home loss to Stockport, and speaking after the game, boss Matt Hamshaw asked for time to get players fit again.
“It always increases the urgency, doesn't it?,” he said when asked about dropping into the bottom four.
“I'm well aware it always increases the pressures that are on the manager. I don't want to be down there, but it's important we keep staying together.
“I keep saying the same things - we'll be a different team when we've got our players back.
Trouble is, it doesn’t take too many injuries or too many defeats for that period of transition to quickly become a relegation battle.
On Saturday, a toothless Millers side shorn of a host of strikers and losing for the first time at the New York Stadium this season, dropped into the League One relegation zone in a tame defeat to Stockport County.
Kyle Wootton climbed highest to head past a flat-footed Cameron Dawson on the hour mark to score the only goal while Hamshaw and the 7,000 Millers fans could feel aggrieved when Liam Kelly’s close-range effort from a nodded-down free-kick was ruled out for offside but the harsh reality was the Millers offered very little going forward.
Hamshaw - who despite the injuries to the likes of Sam Nombe, stayed loyal to fielding two frontmen which had served him well so far this season - knows the fine line he is treading between fans accepting a season of mid-table transition and not tolerating a battle for survival.
“It always increases the urgency, doesn't it?,” he said when asked about dropping into the bottom four.
“I'm well aware it always increases the pressures that are on the manager. I don't want to be down there, but it's important we keep staying together.
“I keep saying the same things - we'll be a different team when we've got our players back.
“That's when, rightly or wrongly, I should be judged. People will probably say that they're judging me now. But that's our first defeat at home. I'm well aware of our away record.
“It would be really easy for me to come out and say things about why it's like it is.
“I think it's there for everybody to see - the reasons why we are where we are. But I can't change a lot of that.
“All I can change is tomorrow and moving forward, and make sure that we all stay positive, we all understand our roles and we get some of these players back.”
Trouble is, it doesn’t take too many injuries or too many defeats for that period of transition to quickly become a relegation battle.
On Saturday, a toothless Millers side shorn of a host of strikers and losing for the first time at the New York Stadium this season, dropped into the League One relegation zone in a tame defeat to Stockport County.
Kyle Wootton climbed highest to head past a flat-footed Cameron Dawson on the hour mark to score the only goal while Hamshaw and the 7,000 Millers fans could feel aggrieved when Liam Kelly’s close-range effort from a nodded-down free-kick was ruled out for offside but the harsh reality was the Millers offered very little going forward.
Hamshaw - who despite the injuries to the likes of Sam Nombe, stayed loyal to fielding two frontmen which had served him well so far this season - knows the fine line he is treading between fans accepting a season of mid-table transition and not tolerating a battle for survival.
“It always increases the urgency, doesn't it?,” he said when asked about dropping into the bottom four.
“I'm well aware it always increases the pressures that are on the manager. I don't want to be down there, but it's important we keep staying together.
“I keep saying the same things - we'll be a different team when we've got our players back.
“That's when, rightly or wrongly, I should be judged. People will probably say that they're judging me now. But that's our first defeat at home. I'm well aware of our away record.
“It would be really easy for me to come out and say things about why it's like it is.
“I think it's there for everybody to see - the reasons why we are where we are. But I can't change a lot of that.
“All I can change is tomorrow and moving forward, and make sure that we all stay positive, we all understand our roles and we get some of these players back.”
Dan Gore was a class apart for the Millers, using his body smartly to create space in a midfield in which another great schemer in Ollie Norwood, patrolled for Stockport.
But that apart, Rotherham had very little going forward, rushing the few opportunities that came their way.
“I felt that today we weren't anywhere near our best, and I don't think Stockport were at their best either,” admitted Hamshaw.
“You could argue that if we'd scored that goal at the end for 1-1 we would have probably have felt a little bit luckier than them.
“I didn't think there was a lot in the game. We didn't grab it by the scruff of the neck and that's my frustration because in all of my previous period of time we have grabbed hold of games.
“We need to look up and not down and stay positive as a group. I'm asking people to do a lot of things that probably they aren't used to doing.
“So I can't fault the lads' effort and application, but we've just got to be better at certain times in games.”
