So tough as the fun seeps away ... The David Rawson Rotherham United Fan Column

These are hard times to be a Miller.

The hardest since Tony Stewart took over.

Momentum has not only stalled, but reversed. We’re not quite in a full-on fight for our league status yet, but we’re not far off. To think we used to wonder how to cement ourselves in the Championship.

We used to talk about moving forward “incrementally”. Now, everything seems to be getting incrementally worse.

Manager after manager talks about being on the front foot, competing physically. The squad gets smaller and more lightweight with each transfer window.

I couldn’t tell you what we look for when recruiting, beyond “being available on a free transfer”.

We’re not set up for a dogfight, and yet we’re in a division that might well be called the League of Fighting Dogs.

We can’t get players fit. We can’t keep them fit. This has been true for years now.

People have promised to look into the problem, find out why, and learn lessons. Either they didn’t look hard enough, or they learned the wrong thing, because it’s late October and some of the squad’s unavailable again.

We used to show the opposition team line-up on the big screen before games. We used to show replays, live scores, substitutions. We don’t bother anymore.

On Tuesday night and Saturday afternoon, I stood outside the ground, getting soaked, because we’d only opened half of the available turnstiles.

No one knew why, or seemed particularly inclined to do anything about the queue of increasingly-sodden supporters building up outside as a result. It’s a good job that a decent block of season-ticket-holders doesn’t turn up to matches these days, because otherwise the wait in the rain would have been even longer.

The fun is leaching away.

Quite a few people gave up and left when Shrewsbury Town scored their third.

You might say “more fool them” for not keeping the faith and missing the equaliser. You might also question why they’d run out of faith to keep.

Every fan wants to believe in their team. Every fan wants to believe that setbacks are temporary or easily fixed. Managers come under pressure because we want to believe that success is just a quick fix away. Referees get blamed because we want to believe the team would be basically fine were it not for the incompetence of the officials.

Shrewsbury scored a ridiculously offside goal. And no-one really went mental.

Alex Bruce isn’t really under pressure from the supporters, despite taking two points from five games.

Not that he should be, but usually the sound of sharpening knives would be heard by now.

Instead, people seem to recognise that the problems are deeper-rooted and harder to fix.

Tom Bradshaw’s equaliser was a moment. A spark of defiance.

But it’s cold out.

And sparks can’t keep you warm.