Neil Warnock, Pep Guardiola and Rotherham United New York gladiators ... the Paul Warne Column

This column first appeared in last Friday's Advertiser

I was fitness coach then. Did I learn anything from Neil about management? I think you take things off people by osmosis. You're not always aware you're taking things, but you are doing.

One thing I learned from him was, in pressure moments, to be surprising with the lads.

Sometimes you might be hard on them but sometimes you might go the other way and be completely soft.

I do speak to individuals a lot, which is something he did. He'd walk around the training ground and just have the odd minute with individual players.

What I did like about Neil was that he wasn't obsessed with stats, which a lot of people are.

We'd win a game 1-0 and it was just about winning the football match. It wasn't about having the ball 70 per cent of the time or how many times you went sideways or backwards.

We don't have as much possession as the opposition. When Neil was here, I don't think we ever had more than 35 per cent possession but we won no end of games.

I don't think fans leave New York Stadium after the final whistle and go: 'That was great. We had 62 pc possession today. We lost 6-0 but we had a lot of the ball.' I don't think people are too interested in possession.

We set up to be hard to break down. We work unbelievably hard out of possession. When we get the ball, we try to do something with it.

We don't pass for passing's sake. We're about getting crosses into the box and having attempts on goal.

I want Rotherham fans to enjoy watching Rotherham play. The DNA of this club now is we have athletic players who give everything. The fact we don't dominate possession doesn't bother us.

The most possession we've had at home was against Hull City and that's the only game we've lost at New York.

I think the fans appreciate how hard it is for our lads. In fairness to them, when we played Swansea City at home and Swansea were brilliant, the fans never gave up on the players. And we won! The fans are pretty educated here.

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THE day after the last home game, the 2-2 draw with Queens Park Rangers, I’d been manager for two years.

It's been a fair old journey. Two years ago, we've had lost that QPR game. This league is better than it was two years ago.

We have a really honest group who I think the world of. I feel that the club is in good health. We haven't over-spent or anything crazy like that.

We're trying to put down some stable foundations, but this is some league.

When it's Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, it's extra tough.

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AT home, my players feel like Gladiators. Procs (Jamie Proctor) said to me: 'I don't feel we'll lose to anyone at home.' That's some feeling to have, innit?

I also say this ... in football everyone goes on about physiology and fitness and all that, but it's your brain that makes you run. It's not your body.

If your brain isn't fully wired in and sharp, you've got no chance. The group I have got here, in my opinion it's the perfect club for them at the perfect time in their careers.

They all buy in to what we're doing. They all understand it's about the ‘we’ not the ‘me’.

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THE FA Cup draw, it's good, innit, I suppose.  Obviously, we're not going to get to Wembley and everyone wants an exciting draw or a good day out, so Manchester City away ... we'll take what we've been given.

You could get an easier game in the third round against a lower team but you're not guaranteed to win that and land a big tie in the round after.

The fans will enjoy it. I presume we'll take a few there. We drew away at Everton in the League Cup earlier in the season and the lads gave a good account of themselves there and that's all I'll ask of them again.

We'll just park it until the New Year because the league games are coming thick and fast.

Obviously, Pep will be even more excited by the draw than I am. He'll get to see me in full action.

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IT doesn't need me to tell you that it’s a huge game at Sheffield Wednesday this weekend.

Our record going into it isn't too horrendous. If we’d won the last ten or lost the last ten, it would still be a big game for us.

We’ve been quite good away from home recently. We hadn’t been beaten for a while until the Norwich game last week.

Yes, the match at the Owls is big. But so is the one the week after that at home to Reading.

The Advertiser's Paul Davis was asking me about my best derby moments as a player, but my memory for games is rubbish.

I can remember hardly anything. I can recall very little about anything I did personally. I'm worried now that it's maybe because I did very little!

My biggest memory is my teammate, Darren Garner, scoring the winner at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday in the last minute from about 60 yards out back in 2002.

I remember it because he was one of the slowest players I ever played with but he ran as quickly when that goal went in as Woody (Richard Wood) did when he scored the play-off final winner at Wembley in May. Neither before or since that goal has Darren ever been that fast.

I also remember coming on at Sheffield United once as a substitute and changing the game a little bit. Well, the way I remember it I changed the game.

We drew 2-2 after being 2-0 down in 2001 at Bramall Lane. It's all coming back to me now. I came on as a sub for Andy Monkhouse and was an absolute game-changer. Kevin Watson and Chris Swailes scored for us.

The manager, Ronnie Moore, got his team horrendously wrong and started me on the bench, which was a big mistake. I saved his job with an unbelievable display.