Millers v local teams - closing the gap?

[Galant]

RUFC are 57th in the all time league position stakes with Barnsley 40th and Sheff U and Sheff W 29th and 28th respectively.
On average we have been a league 1 side whilst the other 3 have been Championship sides. Nothing much to pick between the 2 Sheffield clubs despite one being massive.

Over the past 19 years (including the forthcoming season) i.e. since the turn of the millennium.
Sheff W 15 seasons in Championship, Sheff Utd 12 in Championship plus 1 in premiership. Barnsley 11 in Championship and RUFC 8 in Championship. (Donny 5 in Championship).
Not a lot of change but considering we were docked 40 points in this time plus played at 3 grounds and had to be financially restructured more than once we have done well to maintain our relative status.

Over the past 5 years (including forthcoming season):
Sheff W 5 in Championship, RUFC 4 in Championship, Barnsley 3 in Championship, Sheff Utd 2 in Championship, Donny 0.
We may be small in terms of crowd and finances but we are giving the massives a run for their money - the gap appears to be closing and that's down to Tony Stewart outperforming the other chairmen in the way the club is run. Has he made mistakes? - yes. Has he done better than all of the other local chairmen - absolutely. Cheers Tony - enjoy another championship[ season with the merry Millers from Toytown.

[sCORaFU]

RUFC are 57th in the all time league position stakes with Barnsley 40th and Sheff U and Sheff W 29th and 28th respectively.
On average we have been a league 1 side whilst the other 3 have been Championship sides. Nothing much to pick between the 2 Sheffield clubs despite one being massive.

Over the past 19 years (including the forthcoming season) i.e. since the turn of the millennium.
Sheff W 15 seasons in Championship, Sheff Utd 12 in Championship plus 1 in premiership. Barnsley 11 in Championship and RUFC 8 in Championship. (Donny 5 in Championship).
Not a lot of change but considering we were docked 40 points in this time plus played at 3 grounds and had to be financially restructured more than once we have done well to maintain our relative status.

Over the past 5 years (including forthcoming season):
Sheff W 5 in Championship, RUFC 4 in Championship, Barnsley 3 in Championship, Sheff Utd 2 in Championship, Donny 0.
We may be small in terms of crowd and finances but we are giving the massives a run for their money - the gap appears to be closing and that's down to Tony Stewart outperforming the other chairmen in the way the club is run. Has he made mistakes? - yes. Has he done better than all of the other local chairmen - absolutely. Cheers Tony - enjoy another championship[ season with the merry Millers from Toytown.

Agree 100%

[rolymiller]

I'm surprised Barnsley are so much higher than us I remember them having some piss poor seasons in the lower divisions in the 60s and 70s and always thought we were a bigger club than them as I stood on that slag heap behind the goal at Oakwell. Admittedly they have had a better last 35 years than us on the whole. The positions of the dee dars shows how false it is for them to think that they are somehow naturally premier league clubs. Based on this they are at best play off wannabes for the prem.

[animallittle3]

I'm surprised Barnsley are so much higher than us I remember them having some piss poor seasons in the lower divisions in the 60s and 70s and always thought we were a bigger club than them as I stood on that slag heap behind the goal at Oakwell. Admittedly they have had a better last 35 years than us on the whole. The positions of the dee dars shows how false it is for them to think that they are somehow naturally premier league clubs. Based on this they are at best play off wannabes for the prem.

Both clubs had a wonderful opportunity to go straight through the old second division in 1981/82 and claim our place in the top flight .

We were both perhaps a couple of players short but it was easily achievable given the wave we were both riding and the more level playing field at the time .

Watford and Luton went up that season and neither were any bigger than ourselves , you could argue Luton were smaller in fact .

[millmoormagic]

RUFC are 57th in the all time league position stakes with Barnsley 40th and Sheff U and Sheff W 29th and 28th respectively.
On average we have been a league 1 side whilst the other 3 have been Championship sides. Nothing much to pick between the 2 Sheffield clubs despite one being massive.

Over the past 19 years (including the forthcoming season) i.e. since the turn of the millennium.
Sheff W 15 seasons in Championship, Sheff Utd 12 in Championship plus 1 in premiership. Barnsley 11 in Championship and RUFC 8 in Championship. (Donny 5 in Championship).
Not a lot of change but considering we were docked 40 points in this time plus played at 3 grounds and had to be financially restructured more than once we have done well to maintain our relative status.

Over the past 5 years (including forthcoming season):
Sheff W 5 in Championship, RUFC 4 in Championship, Barnsley 3 in Championship, Sheff Utd 2 in Championship, Donny 0.
We may be small in terms of crowd and finances but we are giving the massives a run for their money - the gap appears to be closing and that's down to Tony Stewart outperforming the other chairmen in the way the club is run. Has he made mistakes? - yes. Has he done better than all of the other local chairmen - absolutely. Cheers Tony - enjoy another championship[ season with the merry Millers from Toytown.

Nice post and good to see that from a different perspective. I think we're bumping along nicely like you say we've endured some proper shyte in the last 10/15 years but also some very good. Can we consolidate in the championship? who knows, but we've a better chance with the whole ethos of the club right now than we ever have.

[frogmiller]

Good O/P Galant. TS may have made some mistakes but not compaired with others.

[rolymiller]

Both clubs had a wonderful opportunity to go straight through the old second division in 1981/82 and claim our place in the top flight .

We were both perhaps a couple of players short but it was easily achievable given the wave we were both riding and the more level playing field at the time .

Watford and Luton went up that season and neither were any bigger than ourselves , you could argue Luton were smaller in fact .

They were 2 excellent teams animal. I remember Banks, Glavin, MCarthy, Evans and co like it was yesterday and it struck me what a great side you had when you demolished our great side at Millmoor 4-2 in the early 80s. And that was no mean feat because for me the Moore team was the best Millers team I have ever seen whilst watching them for over 50 years. The thing is you went on from there. You stabilised yourself in that division and even had a prem season. We couldnt maintain it and slid down into obscurity again. Your time in the higher leagues enabled you to develop a decent fan base something we have not yet been able to do and wont until we can get a decent foothold in the championship for a few seasons, We have caught you up a bit in the last few years in terms pf league position but are still behind you in terms of fan base and structure etc. If we could maintain some success over a number of years we could then perhaps be a club of similar stature.

[animallittle3]

They were 2 excellent teams animal. I remember Banks, Glavin, MCarthy, Evans and co like it was yesterday and it struck me what a great side you had when you demolished our great side at Millmoor 4-2 in the early 80s. And that was no mean feat because for me the Moore team was the best Millers team I have ever seen whilst watching them for over 50 years. The thing is you went on from there. You stabilised yourself in that division and even had a prem season. We couldnt maintain it and slid down into obscurity again. Your time in the higher leagues enabled you to develop a decent fan base something we have not yet been able to do and wont until we can get a decent foothold in the championship for a few seasons, We have caught you up a bit in the last few years in terms pf league position but are still behind you in terms of fan base and structure etc. If we could maintain some success over a number of years we could then perhaps be a club of similar stature.

We couldn't believe you ended up getting relegated a season later , it didn't seem possible given the nucleus of the team remained relatively unchanged from the previous two seasons .

It took a fair while for you to return to the second tier .

In 1997/98 we were three divisions apart although you were just at the beginning of climbing back up under our friend Mr Moore .

It causes many a heated debate on our board as to who was the better team between the 81/82 and 96/97 team .

Slam dunk for me , the 96/97 team , they won promotion to the top flight , end of story .

[millavanilla]

They were 2 excellent teams animal. I remember Banks, Glavin, MCarthy, Evans and co like it was yesterday and it struck me what a great side you had when you demolished our great side at Millmoor 4-2 in the early 80s. And that was no mean feat because for me the Moore team was the best Millers team I have ever seen whilst watching them for over 50 years. The thing is you went on from there. You stabilised yourself in that division and even had a prem season. We couldnt maintain it and slid down into obscurity again. Your time in the higher leagues enabled you to develop a decent fan base something we have not yet been able to do and wont until we can get a decent foothold in the championship for a few seasons, We have caught you up a bit in the last few years in terms pf league position but are still behind you in terms of fan base and structure etc. If we could maintain some success over a number of years we could then perhaps be a club of similar stature.

Roly, the fan base at barnsley was already there..even though in yours and my time watching the millers barnsley were in the bottom divisions and had poor gates..the ground held way over 30 thousand..when some success came their way they had no problem getting 15 or 16 thousand while we were on 9...were piggy in the middle whereas barnsley arnt..wakefield dont have a football team and i personally know a few what go from there to watch barnsley..

[Hazza Has A Gazza]

Barnsley have a bigger fanbase than us because historically their townsfolk showed more interest in its football team than ours did. They have the same teams around them that we have so we can't use that as an excuse.