Unclear picture after too much wasted time ... David Rawson's Rotherham United fan column

Rotherham United manager Matt Taylor in his last match in charge, at Watford. Picture: Jim Brailsford

You’ve a bit of time between fixtures, so you can focus completely on the hiring process. If you find the right candidate early, they can see the players in training, get a feel for what they’ve got - and what’s missing. Maybe introduce a couple of new ideas.

Otherwise, you’re in it. No time to take stock.

And not much margin for error.

Former Rotherham United manager Matt Taylor in charge of his final match, at Watford. Picture: Jim Brailsford

Two out of the present bottom three are down. Wednesday need to gain ten points on Huddersfield. That’s a lot for a team averaging a point from every three games. For both us and QPR to drag two teams below us needs a similar turnaround.

But, for one of us to survive requires “only” a couple of wins out of turn.That’s doable, but only just. Lose in a round of fixtures and Huddersfield win, and we’re a long way behind, with all that means for player recruitment and retention in January.

It makes so much sense to recruit during the international break that we, of course, didn’t. It doesn’t seem like we did much at all during that week, apart from receiving applications. We don’t appear to have interviewed anyone.

Which, given it was our choice to be looking for a new manager, is remarkable. We appear to have taken ourselves by surprise by sacking Taylor.

And we appear to have acted without anything more than a general idea that we want an experienced manager to take over.

It’s not clear, for example, what our expectations are. Staying up is obviously the motivation for making a change, but we’re not in a massively false position. It’s more likely than not that we get relegated from this point. If the new manager takes us down, do they get the chance to take us back up?

It matters.

Look at the difference between the Leeds game and games under Taylor. An interim manager, who might not lead the side again, doesn’t worry about whether his ageing central defenders can cope with two games in four days. A permanent manager, who has to juggle the fixture list for the next few months, hooks one or both after 70 minutes.

Now imagine January. Is it all about staying up or laying the foundations for a summer rebuild if we don’t?

We haven’t the resources for a ‘stay up at all costs’ approach. We have to box clever. We have to find ways to compete against the odds.

We have to get this managerial appointment right.