Is this a 'Sliding Doors' moment for the club?

[Jimmy Badfellow]

I thought I would get this out there before the Boro game.......

Are the next 2 games the most important for the club in recent memory? If we stay up will we then be able to get a firm foothold in the Championship and become established or if we go down will the string of the yo-yo snap and will we be resigned to many seasons in League 1?
Discuss.

[Yak]

It seems that way tbh.
It’s all about staying up any means necessary.
Whatever happens a total overall of the squad is needed.
Personally I think MT is the man to do it.

[the_idiotb_stardson]

Yes it is. Lots of rumours about things right at the top at RUFC.

If we go down. I think we will be gone for a long while.

[DerekMiller]

I thought I would get this out there before the Boro game.......

Are the next 2 games the most important for the club in recent memory? If we stay up will we then be able to get a firm foothold in the Championship and become established or if we go down will the string of the yo-yo snap and will we be resigned to many seasons in League 1?
Discuss.

1. Are the next 2 games the most important for the club in recent memory? - Yes definitely, although a good showing tomorrow and a point would be enough to make that second game irrelevant. 3 points would be a dream come true

2. If we stay up will we then be able to get a firm foothold in the Championship and become established?- Hmm, not sure. I'll always back Taylor while ever he's Millers manager and I want him to amazingly well, but I just don't think he's the man to take us forward. Recent performances and some bizarre tactical/team choices coupled with flat, almost disinterested interviews are making him more like Alan Stubbs every day. But I hope this is just a blip and we can regroup and hit the ground running next season. I'd be more than happy for Taylor to prove me wrong

3. If we go down will the string of the yo-yo snap and will we be resigned to many seasons in League 1? - Highly likely. The competition in that league is getting ridiculous. Wednesday bag 93 points and have to do the play offs? I mean as funny as that is it's also a sign of what we'd be up against. I think we'd finish in the top ten but it's a very tough league to get out of at the right end

[mygiddypant]

1. Are the next 2 games the most important for the club in recent memory? - Yes definitely, although a good showing tomorrow and a point would be enough to make that second game irrelevant. 3 points would be a dream come true

2. If we stay up will we then be able to get a firm foothold in the Championship and become established?- Hmm, not sure. I'll always back Taylor while ever he's Millers manager and I want him to amazingly well, but I just don't think he's the man to take us forward. Recent performances and some bizarre tactical/team choices coupled with flat, almost disinterested interviews are making him more like Alan Stubbs every day. But I hope this is just a blip and we can regroup and hit the ground running next season. I'd be more than happy for Taylor to prove me wrong

3. If we go down will the string of the yo-yo snap and will we be resigned to many seasons in League 1? - Highly likely. The competition in that league is getting ridiculous. Wednesday bag 93 points and have to do the play offs? I mean as funny as that is it's also a sign of what we'd be up against. I think we'd finish in the top ten but it's a very tough league to get out of at the right end

Good post by DM. By no means certain that we would continue the yo-yo routine of recent years. MT has struggled with the demands of the Chumpship, and he doesn't have much experience of L1.

I fear that we would see a gentle slide down in achievement.

[CAMiller]

It'll all be a moot point in just under 24 hours.

[animallittle3]

1. Are the next 2 games the most important for the club in recent memory? - Yes definitely, although a good showing tomorrow and a point would be enough to make that second game irrelevant. 3 points would be a dream come true

2. If we stay up will we then be able to get a firm foothold in the Championship and become established?- Hmm, not sure. I'll always back Taylor while ever he's Millers manager and I want him to amazingly well, but I just don't think he's the man to take us forward. Recent performances and some bizarre tactical/team choices coupled with flat, almost disinterested interviews are making him more like Alan Stubbs every day. But I hope this is just a blip and we can regroup and hit the ground running next season. I'd be more than happy for Taylor to prove me wrong

3. If we go down will the string of the yo-yo snap and will we be resigned to many seasons in League 1? - Highly likely. The competition in that league is getting ridiculous. Wednesday bag 93 points and have to do the play offs? I mean as funny as that is it's also a sign of what we'd be up against. I think we'd finish in the top ten but it's a very tough league to get out of at the right end

Both Plymouth and Ipswich will probably both attain 100 points by this time next Sunday .

Our current points tally of 86 is easily good enough for second spot in the other two EFL leagues never mind Wednesday's 93 .

Insane this league , stay up , its probably easier than getting out of this league that's for sure .

[Nardendee]

I was thinking of a deja vu as opposed to sliding doors.

The worst I ever felt following our great club was in season 1972/73 in the old third division (level 3)
Up to that point we had never played in the old 4th Division since that league started in 1958.

It was a roller coaster of a ride eventually culminating in coming off the tracks.

Early in the season we hammered Port Vale 7-0 but then lost 7-2 at home to Bournemouth due to a goal keeping injury.

At the time there were three dominant teams, Notts County (got promoted) Blackburn Rovers and, the best team (who won the league (Bolton Wanderers)

It was at Burnden Park in November 1972 I was standing directly behind the goal Bolton were attacking. We took a shock lead but they equalised and there were only 4 minutes to go, when Jim McDonagh (our goalie) put the ball down for a goal kick. Just one problem - the ball had not gone out. Their forward raced in and collided with Jim but their player (Garry Jones I think it was) reacted quickest and rolled the ball into an empty net and we had somehow snatched defeat away from the jaws of a point.

In March we actually gained revenge on Bolton with a Ron Wigg goal. I missed this game because I was on a school trip to London.

By the last 3 games we had already secured 41 points (2 pts for a win until 1981/82) and were 8 points (EIGHT) points ahead of Halifax who had four games to play. We lost 2-1 at Blackburn on Good Friday and on Easter Monday we found ourselves 2 down after 75 minutes at home to Oldham Athletic but managed to pull it back to 2-2, BUT in the very last minute of injury time, Oldham lofted a high ball into our penalty area. Up went Roy Tunks, and he caught the ball but somehow it slipped through his fingers and into the net and we lost 3-2. The standing joke at the time was that Roy Tunks was going into hospital to have the margarine removed from his hands. Funny looking back but at the time I was not laughing.
Going into our final game, again at Millmoor, we needed a point to stay up at home to York City who had to win to finish above us. York (like Cardiff) were well up for it and raced into a 2 goal lead by half time. We managed to pull one back but couldn’t get the equaliser and lost 2-1.
Even then we weren’t down. Halifax were 2 points behind us and still had a game to play, which was at Walsall (mid table) the following week, after everyone else had finished the season. Halifax won 1-0 to send us down to the 4th Division for the first time on goal average with a record 41 points. I recall three or four teams finished on 41 pts but we finished 21st and went down with what at the time was a record total for a relegated team. That end to the season and the ensuing summer was the worst I have ever felt following the Millers which carried on upto and beyond our first game at the old County ground in Northampton (lost 3-1) the first game of the following season in Division 4.

That really affected me and sadly it had a marked effect on me to to never presume you are promoted or safe until it is impossible to be caught.

That has made me into (in football terms) the nervous wreck I am today and I have walked out of many grounds because I thought we were going to concede. As it happens, we did frequently.

So now, 50 years later am absolutely cacking myself and hope that the lads can tomorrow, somehow remove me (and others) from the intolerable pressure of cacking myself for another week until we play Wigan.

Oh and Cardiff. Thank you very BLOODY much.

[great_fire]

Be OK tomorrow as I'm going to wear my lucky watch, never lost when I've worn it at a match.

[DerekMiller]

I was thinking of a deja vu as opposed to sliding doors.

The worst I ever felt following our great club was in season 1972/73 in the old third division (level 3)
Up to that point we had never played in the old 4th Division since that league started in 1958.

It was a roller coaster of a ride eventually culminating in coming off the tracks.

Early in the season we hammered Port Vale 7-0 but then lost 7-2 at home to Bournemouth due to a goal keeping injury.

At the time there were three dominant teams, Notts County (got promoted) Blackburn Rovers and, the best team (who won the league (Bolton Wanderers)

It was at Burnden Park in November 1972 I was standing directly behind the goal Bolton were attacking. We took a shock lead but they equalised and there were only 4 minutes to go, when Jim McDonagh (our goalie) put the ball down for a goal kick. Just one problem - the ball had not gone out. Their forward raced in and collided with Jim but their player (Garry Jones I think it was) reacted quickest and rolled the ball into an empty net and we had somehow snatched defeat away from the jaws of a point.

In March we actually gained revenge on Bolton with a Ron Wigg goal. I missed this game because I was on a school trip to London.

By the last 3 games we had already secured 41 points (2 pts for a win until 1981/82) and were 8 points (EIGHT) points ahead of Halifax who had four games to play. We lost 2-1 at Blackburn on Good Friday and on Easter Monday we found ourselves 2 down after 75 minutes at home to Oldham Athletic but managed to pull it back to 2-2, BUT in the very last minute of injury time, Oldham lofted a high ball into our penalty area. Up went Roy Tunks, and he caught the ball but somehow it slipped through his fingers and into the net and we lost 3-2. The standing joke at the time was that Roy Tunks was going into hospital to have the margarine removed from his hands. Funny looking back but at the time I was not laughing.
Going into our final game, again at Millmoor, we needed a point to stay up at home to York City who had to win to finish above us. York (like Cardiff) were well up for it and raced into a 2 goal lead by half time. We managed to pull one back but couldn’t get the equaliser and lost 2-1.
Even then we weren’t down. Halifax were 2 points behind us and still had a game to play, which was at Walsall (mid table) the following week, after everyone else had finished the season. Halifax won 1-0 to send us down to the 4th Division for the first time on goal average with a record 41 points. I recall three or four teams finished on 41 pts but we finished 21st and went down with what at the time was a record total for a relegated team. That end to the season and the ensuing summer was the worst I have ever felt following the Millers which carried on upto and beyond our first game at the old County ground in Northampton (lost 3-1) the first game of the following season in Division 4.

That really affected me and sadly it had a marked effect on me to to never presume you are promoted or safe until it is impossible to be caught.

That has made me into (in football terms) the nervous wreck I am today and I have walked out of many grounds because I thought we were going to concede. As it happens, we did frequently.

So now, 50 years later am absolutely cacking myself and hope that the lads can tomorrow, somehow remove me (and others) from the intolerable pressure of cacking myself for another week until we play Wigan.

Oh and Cardiff. Thank you very BLOODY much.

By the way. Up to Halifax winning that game we hadn’t been in the bottom 4 all season.

Deja vu? I certainly hope not.

Great write up but I'm even more nervous about tomorrow now ! We really don't support a team that's good for the old blood pressure do we?