If there’s anyone in the Rotherham United squad who has experienced the highs and lows that football can throw up, it is Lee Peltier.
Still going strong at the age of 36, the veteran defender has spent almost his entire career in the Sky Bet Championship and knows that the division can be an unforgiving beast.
The Millers proved that a week can be a long time in football, experiencing the highs of a scintillating display and victory over Coventry City last Wednesday, only to come out second best in the South Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough just four days later.
Whilst not hiding from the fact that Sunday’s performance against the Owls was - in his own words- ‘not good enough’, Peltier insisted that the team have a drawn a line under it and looking to bounce back on Saturday, when they host Queens Park Rangers at AESSEAL New York Stadium.
“We’ve gone from a big high that we experienced against Coventry to the low of Sunday afternoon,” Peltier told www.themillers.co.uk.
“We all know that Sunday wasn’t good enough, every single person in the dressing room knows that. In football, you get highs and you get lows, the most important thing is to bounce back from the lows."
“We have a chance to do that on Saturday and that is very much our focus now. Football always gives you a chance to ‘go again’ and that is what we need to try and do against QPR.”
The Millers are into their second successive campaign at second tier level having secured survival the previous year.
The 2023/24 campaign has thus far been blighted by a whole host of injury misfortune, which has seen numerous first team players out of action for a sustained period.
Defenders Cameron Humphreys and Tyler Blackett are both set for a lengthy period on the sidelines, with Andre Green also suffering a season-ending injury.
Peltier – whilst acknowledging that the Millers have suffered some bad luck this term – was keen to stress that the team can be better than they have been and still believes there is enough within the squad to secure survival.
“We feel like we’ve certainly competed this year. I know that the results haven’t been as good as we’d have liked, but we’ve been on the wrong end of some back luck or a decision here and there.
“Whilst I say that, we all know the table doesn’t lie and from that point of view, we know that we have to be better and we know that we can be.
“Staying up last year was a great achievement for everyone here, but that was last year and we have to put that behind us.
“This is a new season and we want to achieve the same thing, and I believe that we can do that."
“There’s still a long way to go. We’ve been unlucky so far with injuries and I feel that once we’ve settled down properly and have everyone back, we’ll get some sort of consistency back.”
