It's down to the manager ... The David Rawson Rotherham United Fan Column

Some goalless draws are frustrating. You had your chances, you didn't take them. You gain a point, but it could have been three. Maybe should have been.

This wasn't that. We had half-chances. We made as much of them as we could. Luton dealt with them. Fair enough. No shame in that.

Some goalless draws are feats of resilience, snatched by luck and determination against the better team on the day. These are treasured points, but they come with that sense of unease; you know, deep down, that you should have lost, that every gift from providence comes with the promise of it being clawed back somewhere else, some other time. The pleasure of pride in guts and grit comes with the knowledge of the balancing account of future pain.

This had us showing resilience, but it wasn't a fortunate result. Luton weren't making chance after chance. They were stymied and blocked, set a puzzle that they couldn't solve. And we weren't passive, just lacking the resources to mount a real attacking threat.

No, this was a rare thing. A goalless draw that was planned for with clear-eyed professional pragmatism and earned via consistent, disciplined effort.

Coaches are idealists. They drawn patterns in their mind of how a team should play and then try to dice those patterns into collective muscle memory. Coaches judge the execution in the moment. The result takes care of itself, is the famous coaching mantra.

Managers are pragmatists. The result is everything. They take what's available.

This was a manager's result. This was the most Neil-Warnock-like approach to a game since Warnock left. That’s intended as high praise. Games like this are why he was so successful, so often, at so many clubs.

Feel the game out. Adapt. Reduce ambition once injuries dictate that, if Luton score, it's game over. Make sure Luton don't score.

Take everything that's available from the game. No more, no less.

It takes some character from the players to pull it off. That's a managerial thing, too. You have to want to play for the manager to put in that sort of disciplined, diligent shift.

There's plenty of room to hide in an injury-ravaged squad, plenty of excuses if you want them. Some of this team took the excuse option last year. They're not doing it this season, under this manager.

We're top of the form league with almost all our first-choice defenders and forwards unavailable. That's management, as well.

Things are slowly turning. An away point like this has been unthinkable for years.

That, too, helps it feel like a victory.