Steve vans gives his weekly update...
Steve Evans arrived at the Millers training ground this morning as he starts the team's preparation for Tuesday night's JP Trophy match away at in-form Hartlepool. We got up with the man himself to look ahead to the week, and reflect on yesterday's FA Cup action.
What are your thoughts as you look back on yesterday's comfortable 3-0 victory over Yorkshire rivals Bradford City?
I have obviously watched the match back on DVD but it did not tell me much more than I knew from watching it yesterday. Our performance was excellent, full of energy, tenacity and some stunning football against what I consider to be a very good opposition.
The lads have been dominating matches for weeks and not getting the rewards they deserve so it was a result they all deserved. Yes it could have been a day where we scored a few more but I must also give a lot of credit to the Bradford goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin who simply had a stunning performance; he made at least six or seven wonderful saves.
There is a great team spirit in the group, they enjoy coming to work and putting the graft in. The harder and smarter they work then the better we will be. It was an outstanding performance from the lads and it was a reward for the fantastic vocal support we got from the Millers support.
Can we have an injury update?
The only player missing through injury or illness at present is David Worrall. The lad is now injury free and back in training but he has been laid low with a virus, hopefully he will be back on the training ground later in the week. Claude Davis has trained all week and is now back available for selection.
We will be without Kari Arnason as he will be away on International duty and it looks likely that Michael O Connor will also be away with his country so once again our resources will be stretched but that creates big opportunities for others. On behalf of everyone at Rotherham United I would especially like to wish Kari every success in Iceland's World Cup qualifier with Croatia.
On Tuesday evening we travel to League 2 Hartlepool in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, will you be making changes to the team from yesterday?
Obviously we will be without Arnason and O'Connor but I have to say neither would have played regardless. We will of course respect the competition and adhere to the rules but I would think I will be making the maximum changes I am allowed to.
I will look today at what players are carrying knocks and so forth then I will start to prepare the lads for what I expect to be a really tough match against a team who are in wonderful form.
Are you looking to strengthen the squad prior to the emergency loan window closing?
We have been trying to do that for some time now but there is a strict criteria for us to meet and that must be adhered to. First we have moved on from signing players who will be squad players, we now want better than we have. Obviously they must give us value for money and they must have a desire to play at Rotherham United. I have told many players since I came to the Millers that if you leave here you only go down in status unless you leave for a big transfer fee.
This is a proud football club, with great supporters, a brilliant Chairman and in the main a squad full of young men who love being here, that is very important to me.
We have fantastic facilities and all of the above gives us a real chance of progressing; our core objective is to continually improve and we are achieving that but it must continue. Our journey has started, it has been exciting but it has a long way to go.