MillersMAD Greatest XI: Strikers

Last updated : 20 July 2007 By Millersmad Staff
This was the most exciting and eagerly anticipated vote of them all, with some highly qualified candidates. However, there were only two places available so some people had to miss out.

Alan Lee was not one of those to miss out as he polled 28% of the votes, more than anyone else. Even now close to four years on from his departure, Alan Lee is still revered and idolised as if he was a messiah.

He will ultimately be remembered for scoring that goal against Brentford that sent the Millers up to Division One in the most exciting and euphoric circumstances but of course he brought so much more to the club during his time at Millmoor.

Picked out of the reserves at Burnley on the back of Leo Fortune West's sale, Lee took a little while to get going but eventually was the key to the amazing promotion that season with goals, assists and a general presence about him.
After taking a few months to find his feet in the higher league, he scored some good goals and became the club's star player.

His third season at Rotherham, which turned out to be his last, saw Alan really step up his game and was a handful for the best defenders in the league and on the back of an international call up, the pound signs began rolling in everybody's eyes and the failure to make him the joint best paid player cost the club dearly as he left to join Cardiff at the start of the 03/04 season.

The Irish man was never a prolific scorer, bagging 37 goals in 111 games but contributed far more than goals and his departure can be cited as the beginning of Rotherham's recent slide down the football ladder. He remains a Rotherham legend and will be until his dying day and that is why he has been voted as one of the club's greatest ever.

So, Lee will be joined up front by the manager that signed him, and the manager that has been voted as Rotherham's greatest ever manager.

Ronnie Moore makes it a double as he received 22% of the votes and gets his place up front. Moore was brought to the club in 1980, with the scouser keen to get his career back on track following a disastrous spell at Cardiff, where he scored just six goals in 56 games.

He had an immediate impact as his goals fired Rotherham to a championship winning promotion from Division Three (now League One) in 1980-81. The next season was just as prolific as his goals once again fired the club up the table, with Rotherham finishing just four points off a promotion place to the top level.

The next season saw the club relegated and at the end Moore was sold to Charlton Athletic ending a great period of success for the club.

It was not only Moore's goals that made he so popular at Millmoor. His banter and mischievousness endeared him to fans and they were many incidents of him messing around but none more so than the famous occasion where he celebrated a goal by nicking a policeman's helmet and putting it on.

Like Lee, Moore retained his iconic status and received a huge homecoming when he was appointed the club's manager in 1997.