Georgie Kelly, Harry Kane's World Cup penalty and a lack of Christmas sparkle ... Millers skipper Richard Wood writes for last week's Advertiser

People talk about the rawness of our striker who is still learning the pro game after moving from the League of Ireland to join the Millers.

But being raw is no bad thing. It means he’s got no fear.

In a way, a lack of experience can be a strength because he doesn’t know any boundaries.

He isn’t scared of putting his head in where it hurts and he wins some great headers. Even if it’s unlikely he’s going to reach the ball he’s still wanting to get there. That’s a great trait to have.

You can sort of see he’s played part-time in Ireland rather than come through an English club’s academy and I like that about him. Opposition defenders aren’t expecting some of the things he does.

Georgie’s a powerful lad with a great leap. He puts himself about and gets into good positions. Look at how many crosses he got on the end of when he came on last Saturday against Bristol City. Their keeper made a great save from one of his headers.

He’s done really well as a substitute and what he needs to do now is try to nail down a starting role.

WE head off to West Bromwich Albion this weekend for a match that brings up the halfway point of the season.

After the Baggies clash at The Hawthorns we will have faced every team in the Championship, then we start the reverse run of fixtures at home to Stoke City on Boxing Day.

I think we’ve done pretty well so far but can do better. There’s nothing we should be afraid of in this league. We’re competing every week and we should go into every match believing we’ve got a chance.

We picked up a win at Sheffield United, which was a great result. We won at Stoke and would have taken all three points at Coventry City had it not been for a bad refereeing decision in stoppage time. We should have at Burnley too. I don’t have to remind you of what happened in 12 minutes of added time there.

They and Sheffield United are going for promotion. We’ve caused the best teams problems.

As players, we are always looking for more, but at the start of the season most people would have taken us being in 18th spot at the halfway stage.

We’re in a higher spot than we have been in previous campaigns at this level and that is a sign of progress. We’re in a good place and we’re not struggling in any department.

It’s been a good, solid start but there is plenty of work still to do. We have to maintain our standards for the second half of the campaign.

BRISTOL City last Saturday ... it wasn’t good, was it?

We now have to dust ourselves down, work on stuff in training and get on with things.

It was our first match in a month and it’s always hard when you come back after an international break. It’s like the first game of the season again and you’re not sure how it’s going to go.

It didn’t go well for us and we lost 3-1. I actually didn’t think we had too much defending to do because we had most of the ball. It was just lapses in concentration that cost us.

We were without a few players because of illness in the camp. My family have all been poorly, but I’ve managed to escape it.

DON’T have a go at Harry Kane.

Yes, I know he missed a crucial penalty in the quarter-finals of the World Cup but it’s not like he did it on purpose.

I watched England’s clash with France at a friend’s house last Saturday and the 2-1 defeat capped off a pretty miserable day of football for me.

However, in no way am I criticising Kane for not tucking away that second penalty.

He’s scored loads of times for England from the spot in the past and has been a magnificent player for the Three Lions.

Players are going to get things wrong now and then and it’s just unfortunate that this miss came in such an important match.

His England teammates won’t blame him. They’ll just put an arm round him, and that’s how it should be. You win and lose together.

Pause for a moment and imagine the pressure he was under. As he was standing there waiting to take the spot-kick, the eyes of the entire world were on him.

It takes b*lls to put yourself in that situation. Credit to him for stepping up.

I’ve taken one penalty in my long career. It was for Coventry City in a shoot-out against Burton Albion in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy back in 2012.

We won 10-9 but the goalkeeper saved my attempt. It wasn’t a bad pen, though! The keeper did well to keep it out.

LAST week the outside Christmas lights at Wood Towers were half on the tree, half off it.

This week the outside Christmas lights at Wood Towers are still half on the tree, half off it.

The cold drove me back indoors when I first tried to put them up and the temperatures have plummeted even further since then.

It’s a forlorn sight when I look out of the window: just a tangle of unlit cabling and the box I stand on to reach the top of the tree out there on its own covered in frost.

I’ll definitely finish off the job this week, though, no matter what the weather is like, because my missus is insisting it gets done.

If I don’t, there’ll be more frost from Jade than there is on that box!