Management team still learning on the job

ROTHERHAM United assistant manager Kevin Blackwell insists that he and manager Neil Warnock are still learning things about the club despite being in charge for over three weeks.

Speaking at Monday’s press gathering before the Millers entertain Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, Blackwell said that with the games coming thick and fast, the duo are still finding things out about players and the club as a whole.

It is a sign of the pair’s commitment to the task of keeping Rotherham in the Championship that they haven’t focussed on little details such as who wears the captain’s armband.

It came as a surprise to Blackwell to learn last week that Lee Frecklington is in fact the club captain, not Kirk Broadfoot, who has worn the armband in all of the games since the former Sheffield United duo replaced Neil Redfearn at the helm.

Since Frecklington regained fitness and made his first team comeback in the home victory against Brentford last week, Broadfoot has continued to wear the armband, to the surprise of some Millers fans.

Blackwell said: “We’ve only been here three weeks and there’s been games coming thick and fast.

“We’re finding more and more out about the place, we didn’t know that Lee Frecklington was the captain before we got here!

“That’s the sort of thing we found out on Thursday, Broadfoot has got the armband and we didn’t know.

“There was an event on Thursday at the ground and Frecks tells me they’ve asked for the captain to go, and he was the captain.

“I said: ‘Were you?’ because we didn’t know, we weren’t told that.

“And then Neil came in on Friday after doing a dinner evening at the ground and said: ‘Did you know Frecks was captain?’; what I’m trying to say is that we are learning, even now we are learning.

“The problem is that we’re learning on the hoof, with all of the pressure of the games on top of you.”

But the man who leads out the side isn’t likely to change any time soon ¬- with Warnock’s superstitious side getting the better of him.

Blackwell added: “They’ve both been picked for the last two games and Broadfoot has been captain, but that’s because we didn’t know.

“You know what Neil’s like, very superstitious, so Frecks might have to wait a little bit longer I think.”

Heading into tomorrow night’s clash with promotion hunting Middlesbrough, Warnock and Blackwell have no new injury doubts and are likely to pick from the same squad of players that travelled to Hillsborough.

Blackwell said: “I think anybody who has got a bump or a bruise certainly hasn’t reported it, that’s for sure.

“Winning has that habit, doesn’t it? Your injuries tend to melt away a little bit.

“Hopefully Lloyd Doyley will start training again this week, but other than that it will be the same squad.”

Blackwell did reveal that striker Luciano Becchio has picked up an injury to his hamstring after returning from a calf injury and is likely to be out of contention for the foreseeable future.