The 14-year gap between Lee Clark's interview and his Rotherham United appointment

Fourteen years later, Lee Clark finally received the ‘yes’ from Rotherham United that he'd been hoping for.

He was first interviewed in the spring of 2012 when owner Tony Stewart was looking for someone to lead the club into the newly-built New York Stadium.

The Geordie was down to the last three. Steve Evans, doing great things at Crawley Town, was also in the frame. So, too, was Mark Robins who'd previously been boss under the chairman and was fancying a return.

Evans eventually got the nod, but it was Clark who had interviewed best of all.

Stewart never forgot that.

The 53-year-old now has the role at least until the end of the season, handed the reins in quickfire fashion less than a fortnight ago when time ran out on Matt Hamshaw's 12-month reign with the Millers stuck in League One's bottom four and showing no sign of escaping.

It ended a four-year break from the hot-seat for a man who represented his boyhood team, Newcastle United, as a player and has seen his boy, Bobby, follow in his footsteps by making impressive early strides in the pro ranks.

“There was,” he admitted when asked soon after his arrival whether there'd ever been a period when he thought his days as a boss were over. “There was that reflection, that possibility.

“But I love the game. I've travelled all over the country and all over Europe to watch my club - and also to watch my son and just to generally watch football. As time goes on, maybe you think you'll do something else - be a mentor or a director of football or something like that.

“I've gone into grassroots football in the North-east to help a friend of mine set up an academy at a club. I even helped him in the process of interviewing managerial applicants. Football's in my blood, it's what I do. I started when I was a kid. I played my first competitive match for my school when I was a six-year-old.

“I was delighted when I got the opportunity to meet the chairman and the board. That meeting felt really good. It's a tough gig, but I'm really positive I'm going to get supported and backed. I genuinely think we can get the job done.”

That ‘job’ is preserving Rotherham's third-tier status and preventing them from falling back into League Two, the division they were part of when Clark and Stewart first encountered each other all those years ago.

A nine-point gap - 10, really, when goal difference is factored in - must be bridged in eight games.

“I got a great buzz getting the boots back on and getting out with the players,” he said. ”It's given me a lot of excitement because I'm a manager who likes to be out on the grass.”

It hasn't taken long for him to work out what's prevented the Millers realising their potential during a Hamshaw tenure that saw the average age of the group significantly reduced across two transfer windows.

“Two things,” he said. “Firstly, the injuries cannot be underestimated. When I spoke to the staff about how many games and minutes important and experienced players have missed, that's been crucial. If this was the start of the season and the squad didn't have injuries, I'd be thinking I've got a chance of getting this group of players into the play-offs, definitely.

“Secondly, when young players don't get results that can eat away at their confidence. That's true of all players, but particularly younger ones. I've got a big reputation for giving young players a chance at all the clubs I've managed. Young players will make errors, they will have dips and I think that's what's happened here.

“They do care, I've seen that already. It's hurting them. It's about me giving them that self-belief and encouragement that I believe they can do the job. I can't give them any more encouragement than to say I took the job believing I could keep them up.”

Back in 2012, Clark's stock was high. In his first managerial stint, he'd twice taken Huddersfield Town to the League One play-offs and had presided over an English record of 43 consecutive league games without defeat.

After the Millers' initial rejection, he went on to take charge of Birmingham City, Blackpool, Kilmarnock, Bury, Blyth Spartans, and teams in Sudan and Oman with varying degrees of success..

To say his appointment at New York is left field is putting it mildly. He hasn't managed in the EFL in 2017, hasn't been a boss anywhere since 2022.

Yet it's a short-term deal that could, conceivably, become a longer one.

He has been able to dispense with Dale Tonge, a move that will involve paying off a number two - and one for whom Rotherham paid compensation - at a time when they are looking to spend less, not more.

Allowing a 44-day boss that kind of influence suggests that Stewart sees him as the man for the future as long as the run-in isn't a disaster.

In addition, summer arrivals and exits need to be planned now. Rob Scott can identify potential signings appropriate to whatever the budget may be, but the recruitment chief works to a manager's demands and needs to know the type of players he is looking for. The Millers would be behind their rivals if that process was to be delayed by another managerial hunt.

And someone has to be making decisions on the retained list.

So far, Clark been an amiable public figure in S60. It's not his first rodeo and he's been saying all the right things - and with a degree of practised polish - in his media duties.

The third tier, despite his long absence from it, holds no fear for him.

“I know how to achieve results - what works and what doesn't,” he said. “There's been a time of reflection while I've been away from the game. That's been good for me.

“There'll be different things to my management now than when I first started out at Huddersfield. There are little things you think you can do better or differently.”

Notoriously, he found losses hard to handle when he retired from playing and first stepped into the dugout.

“I think that's the big thing - reaction to a defeat,” he said. “In my early days, I found that difficult. That cannot happen now and it won't. As you get older, you get a bit wiser.”

Hamshaw was sacked late in the evening of Tuesday March 17 in the wake of an insipid display and a 5-0 mauling at Peterborough United. The tone of the after-match phone conversation with the chairman in which the end came was regretful rather than rancorous. Both were sorry it hadn't worked out and the pair said farewell on decent terms.

The parting of the ways was announced at 10am the following morning. At around the same time, Clark was already travelling down the A1 from Newcastle to the home of Stewart, and board members also soon headed to the Moorgate residence.

Within four hours, Rotherham had a new boss.

Who it was surprised everybody

Including, by his own admission, Clark himself.