Nearly a decade of magic ... the inside story of departing Rotherham United legend Richard Wood

IT was the game that launched the survival miracle.

After nearly two wasted years with Rotherham United, Richard Wood was finally being given a run in the team.

The Millers beat Brentford at New York Stadium in late February 2016 as they began to make history. The result instigated the 11-match unbeaten run that would thrillingly lead to Championship safety and the centre-half had played a full and rugged part.

“Don’t think I didn’t spot you ‘clothes line’ Alan Judge,” I texted him after the 2-1 victory.

“Got to stop the runs!” came back the cheery reply complete with a winky-face emoji.

Wood’s outstretched arm, off the ball, out of the eyeline of the officials, across the neck, had brought the Bees man’s progress to a poleaxing  halt.

Off the pitch, the defender was a lovely, gentle man, offsetting his imposing physicality with self-deprecating humour; on it, an uncompromising, unflinching competitor whom no opponent relished facing. He was what is colloquially known as ‘hard’.

His body was absolutely ripped. “It’s natural, I do no weights,” he grinned. “The lads hate me for it.”

Steve Evans signed him in 2014 and then didn’t play him, Neil Redfearn similarly failed to acknowledge his qualities, yet Neil Warnock knew a real defender when he saw one.

Wood was at the fore as the Great Escape unfolded and those spells in loan exile at Crawley Town, Fleetwood Town and Chesterfield suddenly seemed long in the past.

But for a time out of favour during the brief reign of Alan Stubbs he would remain at the heart of the action for the next six seasons until things eventually soured again at the turn of this year.

The 37-year-old and the Millers last week parted company after nearly a decade together. Coaching and management beckon one day but for now he wants to extend his life as a player into a 20th year and will seek a new challenge at another EFL club.

He goes with the best wishes of every Rotherham follower — and more than 4,000 of them belting out his ‘Magic’ song after his farewell appearance at Wigan Athletic was a wonderful way for him to bow out — although he hadn’t always been a crowd favourite.

That would come bit by bit, game by game, as his contribution and influence in League One promotion pushes and Championship bids to avoid relegation grew to the point where he had won the respect of everyone.

For a time, in the early managerial years of Paul Warne, he endured plenty of criticism, yet he was as strong in mind as he was in body and the social-media barbs had no impact on his steely self-belief.

“I know what I bring to the team,” he once quietly told me.

One of hundreds of interviews The Advertiser's Paul Davis conducted with Richard Wood

His Rotherham career truly began under Warnock and then flourished under Warne who gave him the armband along with the nickname ‘Wrecking Ball’.

The famous song had its first airing in the 2017/18 campaign when Wood was, quite simply, beyond magnificent.

At some stage just before Christmas, he decided he and the Millers were going up and, by hook or by crook, he dragged his teammates with him, turning in one inspirational performance after another.

A leader, a warrior, a colossus.

The captain got his cracked, craggy cranium on everything in both penalty areas, the carnage he created deep in opposition territory bringing him seven goals, a hundred near-misses and a thousand worthy attempts that ended up in the crowd or somewhere near the corner flag.

Fans lapped it up. “He heads it to the left, he heads it to the right.”

There was no such thing as infringements in Woody World where he resided somewhere in the postcode of ‘Thou Shalt Not Pass’; there were just ways of stopping opponents, of guarding the Millers net.

Those magic powers supporters bestowed on him were never put to better use than when he pulled off a disappearing act on the referee’s eyesight as he was guilty of GBH in his own box on an opponent during a 1-0 triumph at Burton Albion in August 2019 of a League One promotion push.

The local paper, quite rightly, devoted its entire back page of its next edition to a frame-by-frame photographic show of evidence of the atrocity.

I’d felt the need to text him again: “Go on, say it was a penalty.” “The referee didn’t give it and that’s the end of it,” was the response.

It’s a lovely irony that the most honest player I have ever met has left New York after all these years having managed to convince himself that he never committed a foul.

Wood watched Leeds United as a boy, made his name at Sheffield Wednesday, but it’s the Millers who are now closest to his heart. Partner Jade and sons Jenson and Graye were home and away regulars and became committed fans.

His career total of games stands at 629 and more of them have come for Rotherham than for any other side.

Teammates looked up to him. He was always one of the gang, always at the centre of the banter, always a big presence on a night out, yet also possessing an air of authority that set him apart.

He was Warne’s right-hand man, the manager’s link to the dressing room, and the pair could often be seen walking together, deep in conversation, around the pitches at Roundwood.

“A brilliant captain,” said the boss. “But he is not a happy man if he’s rested!” Wood felt that only by being in the side did he earn the right to have a voice louder than any of his teammates.

The majority of his many goals came from his head but he had a sweet left foot, out of keeping with his ‘head it, kick it’ mantra, that could deliver a pass of any length. As his age advanced, he was clever enough to play to his strengths and adapt to his weaknesses.

Despite his regular protests to the contrary, his pace wasn’t deceptive. He was as slow as he looked.

He was the club’s long-serving player and one more year would have brought him a testimonial season. In a poll of 750 votes on Twitter, 95 per cent of fans said they hope the Millers will still recognise his contribution in some way.

Earlier in his last campaign, in August and September when he was scoring four times in six games, many observers were saying he had never performed better in a red-and-white shirt.

That threatened to be the dying of the light. Warne left, Matt Taylor came in and the new boss didn’t have a use for the old head.

From January, Wood was no longer in the matchday 18 and often didn’t travel to away matches. It was tragic to see him so marginalised at a club where he had been such a key, dominating, reassuring presence.

Fittingly, things turned for him and he was back in the side for the last six matches, guiding the side over the line to Championship safety. It left him with a record of three League One promotions, three relegations from the division above and three second-tier survivals. Life was never mid-table dull.

He was scared of nobody and no side, his defiance setting the tone for those wearing the same colours. In every one of his 256 Rotherham matches he never gave less than his all. He organised, he cajoled, he made players around him better.

A week before the Wigan chorus, there had been massed ‘Magic’ singing in his honour at New York when the Millers sealed the deal in his last home appearance with victory over Middlesbrough.

Jade was there, Jenson was with him, Graye was by his side; they witnessed it all as the North Stand send-off left him fighting back tears. It was sad but it was perfect.

And, of course, this article wouldn’t be complete without mention of those two goals that so gloriously won the 2018 League One Play-off Final at Wembley in his season of all seasons.

Wood ran to his family, he lifted the trophy, in his interviews afterwards he wore a daft, proud smile and a daft, proud ‘Magic’ hat handed to him by someone in the crowd.

The Wrecking Ball remains, to this day, the only defender to score twice in a play-off final at the national stadium. He will remain for every day a Rotherham legend, the biggest one of modern times.

A leader, a warrior, a colossus.

That’s what he brought to the team.

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COLUMN CAUTION

“I DON’T think I should do it, I won’t be as good as Will.”

Richard Wood was worrying four years ago whether he was the ideal player to write for the Advertiser now that teammate Vaulks had gone to Cardiff City.

Vaulks did charity work for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice and had a compelling opinion on everything. “All I do is drink a lot of coffee,” Wood said. “I’m boring.”

I talked him into it.

We’d get together before training at 10.30am on a Monday; always 10.30am on a Monday. Not that he trained much on Mondays in the latter stages of his Rotherham United career, mind. It was his ‘easy’ day.

I’ve known him since my time with the Sheffield Star and he’s become a real friend. Only a pre-arranged family holiday prevented him coming to my dad’s funeral after my old man had died two days before that great Millers Wembley occasion May 2018.

Being in his company was a good start to the week. God knows how many questions I’ve asked him, how much caffeine we’ve consumed.

We laughed together, debated together. He talked and I listened. Often, I talked and he listened. He was that kind of bloke, it was that kind of relationship.

When it came to material for the paper, he was prepared to open the door on his home life for readers. Up to a point anyway. ‘No, don’t put that in, Jade will kill me’ was a sentence I heard probably more than any other.

We got to know Woody the player, Woody the man, Woody the partner, Woody the dad. He was funnier and more interesting than he ever realised.

I still smile when I recall how he doubted himself.

One-hundred-and-sixty-six columns later ...

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BOSS'S VIEW

MATT Taylor singled out veteran captain Richard Wood for praise as Rotherham United celebrated their Championship safety.

The 37-year-old skipper, who hadn’t been selected for first-team duty since January, came back into the fold during the latter stages of the run-in and led the side during their win over Middlesbrough at New York Stadium that guaranteed their continued presence in the second tier.

In the dressing room afterwards, the manager told his squad: “If you need an example of how to stay in shape, to be ready to do what you need to do as a professional footballer every single day, this is that example. You can all learn an awful lot from him.”

Wood had been a Miller since 2014 and the boss told him: “The way you have conducted yourself for nine seasons at Rotherham has been incredible. The longevity of that may never be done again.”

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HIS MILLERS TIME

2014/15, Championship:

Eight appearances

2015/16, Championship:

13 apps

2016/17, Championship:

31 apps, two goals

2017/18, League One:

42 apps, seven goals

2018/19, Championship:

27 apps, two goals

2019/20, League One:

(Season shortened to 37 league

games because of Covid)

28 apps, four goals

2020/21, Championship:

32 apps, two goals

2021/22, League One:

45 apps, one goal

2022/23, Championship:

30 apps, four goals

Total:

256 apps, 22 goals