Ollie Rathbone, Rotherham United and the sniff of a Championship turnaround

“Sorry, everyone,” said the cheery figure clad in his black Rotherham United tracksuit. “I’ve not had a shower yet.”

The midfielder had scored arguably the goal of the game and was there to talk about last Saturday’s 4-0 rout of Blackburn Rovers that had got the Millers’ Championship campaign up and running again.

Rotherham looked nothing like a side that hadn’t recorded a victory in their previous seven outings as they dismantled play-off-chasing opposition in the second half.

“Winning today is huge,” Rathbone said. “The performance is even more important.

“If we’d scraped a 1-0 win and Blackburn had had 30 shots on goal, I don’t think that would have done loads for us confidence-wise.

“The manner of the victory is the key. There was pressure on us. We needed to perform, we needed three points.”

The 26-year-old’s big moment had come in the 52nd minute as he thumped a 20-yard screamer with his ‘wrong’ left foot into the net off the underside of the bar to put the Millers 2-0 ahead.

Talk turned to whether it was the best strike of his career. “I don’t know,” he mused. “I’d like to say I have a good highlights reel but I don’t. Most of my goals are horrible, so this one has to be right up there. Definitely top three.”

He was sitting only a couple of feet from the assembled press pack. “You smell fine, by the way,” I told him. “Yeah, he grinned. “I’ve sprayed on a bit of deodorant.”

The player was in high spirits. The instant introduction of transfer-window arrivals Sean Morrison and Leo Hjelde and a switch from 3-5-2 to a 4-3-3 system had paid off. Now the Millers were four points clear of the drop zone.

“New faces, new personalities add freshness,” he said. “They give everyone a lift. They add more competition for places, which is important. They look to be two quality additions. Keep them coming.

“I feel comfortable with the new shape. We worked on it during the week. It’s something very different for me. I’ve been here for 18 months and it’s the first time we’ve done it.

“I thought it suited us and worked really well. The lads took to it.”

The prospects of staying in the second tier suddenly looked a whole lot brighter and Rathbone stressed the need for he and his teammates to build on their New York momentum.

“Blackburn have been the third-best team in the division and we’ve run riot today,” he said. “It’s a really good reminder of what we can do to teams in this division, especially at home.

“I thought we played really well in the last home game against Stoke City. The key for the rest of the season is to keep that home form going.”

It had taken what seemed like an age for Rathbone’s spectacular effort to be called good by referee Dean Whitestone who’d had to wait for goalline technology to kick in.

The scorer was always confident, though, and had begun his celebrations as soon as his shot touched the ground. “I thought from the angle that I hit it that surely the ball had gone over the line,” he said.

With that, he upped and departed, heading off towards his car. Or maybe for the shower block in the home dressing room.

What was that he left hanging in the media-suite air? The whiff of victory.

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THE BOSS'S VIEW

“OLLIE'S game was everything that we are as a club, full of effort and endeavour and energy.

“He is not always perfect but I am delighted for him because we are looking for that midfield group to contribute in an attacking sense.  He has shown a number of times he can do that and he will want to keep up today’s form.”

— Matt Taylor