Rotherham United hold key meeting on trial players

Rotherham United are today holding a meeting that will decide the fate of some of the players bidding to earn contracts at AESSEAL New York Stadium for the forthcoming League Two season.

Head coach Alex Bruce and key members of Millers staff will discuss what happens next with seven trialists who have been with the club for varying lengths of time during pre-season.

Some are expected to depart before the final summer friendly, at home to Championship Derby County next Tuesday.

Speaking after the 2-0 win at National League North Darlington last night, Bruce said: "We're going to have conversations tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see who's going to join us for the Derby game."

The trial men are goalkeeper Jake Turner, centre-halves Sonny Aljofree and Ewan Otoo, left-backs Brandon Williams and Kyle McAdam, midfielder Jez Davies and striker Bruce Anderson.

Rotherham also have centre-back Tom Lees in their camp, although he has yet to play as he works on his fitness.

It is a delicate situation for Bruce as who stays and goes - and when they leave - will partly be determined by how quickly the Millers can bolster their numbers with permanent and loan signings.

"It's a case of knowing where I need to use the budget for certain areas," he said. "Once I've got certain key players in positions, then I can know what to do with the trialists. It's a juggling act. I'm still spinning a lot of plates.

"I might need to wait to make a decision on a couple of the trialists because we're working on a couple of other things. It's just about fitting the pegs into the right slots at the right time."

Meanwhile, the head coach was encouraged by some of the things he witnessed at Darlington as the Millers scored early goals through Anderson and Spence to take their summer record to three wins, two draws and one defeat.

"Every game we've played, I'm seeing more and more," he said. "There are things we've worked on, and I was pleased tonight. We showed some good bits. We started the game very well.

"We've done a lot pf work on certain things and the lads are picking it up. There have been a lot of clips on loops for the lads to see the things that we've worked on in training. They can see them whilst they're on the TVs around the building.

"On-field relationships come with time. A lot of these players haven't played together. The trialists who have come in have adapted quite well."