'Most years, we barely manage a cup walk, let alone a cup run' ... The David Rawson Rotherham United Fan Column

Personally, I'm not sure. I've not seen much evidence of it.

We are not a “cup side”. Most years, we barely manage a cup walk, let alone a cup run. We're the sort of club that gets dumped out of the competition by an underdog, not the underdog dumping out the higher-placed team.

Still, it's disappointing to be out. This season, more than most, feels like it could use something different, a side order of something that isn't the main course of the league campaign.

If we're honest, the squad is too brittle to be truly competitive in the league over an entire season. We know now that too many bodies start to fail after two or three consecutive games. There's not enough game time left in the legs of the senior pros, the rigours of League One are too much for the players who are getting their first taste of full-time third-tier first-team football and the balance of the squad is being pushed to breaking point by the need to fill in the gaps.

It's November. We play three at the back. We didn't have a single player in the starting line up against Swindon who was an out-and-out central defender. I think we’ve fielded three genuine central defenders in our backline only once all season.

It doesn't really matter if this is bad luck, bad planning, bad recruitment, bad facilities or some unhealthy combination of all of the above. It's clearly the pattern for the season and we have to suck it up. Part of sucking it up means a league finish below what we might achieve if everyone was fully fit and firing.

(Part of sucking it up might also mean a January window of deck-clearing ahead of the summer. That probably won’t make the season much more fun, but we will see).

In that context, this would have been the ideal season to make some memories in a cup competition. The money would have helped, too.

Most importantly, though, it would have given us a focal point, something to rally around as we transition into the team Matt Hamshaw wants us to be.

It feels like we’ve seen what the Hamshaw era is about, now. It’s going to be a younger team. We’re going to play some intricate stuff. We’re going to be patient in possession, more measured than in the past. More soft rock than heavy-metal football.

We’re on a journey. It’ll take time. It’ll take patience. There will be ups and downs. Especially, with the squad as susceptible to injury as it seems to be.

The more tangible successes that we can bank along the way, the easier it will be. Oakwell was a perfect example.

A cup run would have been another. Shame it wasn’t to be.