The one thing you can always guarantee from a Paul Warne side is a determination to continually strive to be the best they can be everyday in order to be successful.
After over three months and 21 games in all competitions, the Millers unbeaten run was ended at the hands of Accrington Stanley on Boxing Day.
Millers boss Paul Warne has always stressed the importance of not getting too high after victory and too low after defeat, as well as reiterating to the squad to ensure that the unbeaten record ‘counts’ for something at the end of the season.
Defender Michael Ihiekwe echoes the thoughts of his manager and has revealed the whole squad is determined to ensure that they put another run together, to give themselves every chance of achieving their goals come the end of the season.
“We have to give credit to the lads, the staff and everyone involved for the run we went on, this is a very tough league, so to go unbeaten as long as we did was a great achievement, but we want it to count for something in May,” Ihiekwe stressed.
“Now, we have to focus on putting another run together and going out to win as many games as possible from now until the end of the season. If we can match our form from the second half of the season heading into the new year, I’m sure we will give ourselves every chance of being successful."
“We’re raring to go again, we were excited to get back out there against Lincoln and try and put on a show for our home fans, but it wasn’t to be.
“We went to Accrington with every intention to try and win, we’d been in really good form in the build up to that game, but unfortunately it didn’t go our way.
“We weren’t quite at a best and I think we have to give credit to the opposition, who deserved to win in the end.
“With the chances we had, we could have been one or two goals up at half time, but Accrington is a tough place to go and if you don’t take your chances, you leave yourself vulnerable.”
The Millers welcome Bolton Wanderers to AESSEAL New York Stadium, for their first game of 2022.
Having had their game with Lincoln City fall victim to the pandemic – with a number of positive cases in the Imps’ squad – Ihiekwe and the players are now looking to bounce back from last week’s defeat.
“Bolton will come here and obviously try to win the game, they’ll bring a lot of fans and look to make it difficult for us.
“We’re going to treat them as we do with every team and show them respect, but we will be doing our upmost to try and win the game as well.
“The festive games are always great to play in, it’s not just the lads who have got us to this stage, but the fans as well. This is why it was such a shame that we didn’t have them last season, but we’re going to need them in the next five months and I’m sure they will turn up in their numbers as they always do.”