The Local Lowdown: Rotherham United

How would you sum up Rotherham’s season so far?

Last season was a great season. Rotherham stayed up for the first time since 2016, being traditionally a yoyo club between League One and Championship, so it was a terrific achievement last season.

There were high hopes this season after a fairly busy summer of recruitment, but it’s not gone according to plan. We couldn’t buy an away point early in the season, except ironically at your place, where it was a terrific second-half fightback from Rotherham, but it could’ve been 5-0 at half time to Southampton.

It wasn’t just the defeats, it was the manner of the defeats, and Matt Taylor lost his job in November. It then took a month to find a successor, and the gap between us and safety had gone from four points to eight or nine by the time Leam Richardson came in, so it might be that we pay the price for that month delay.

We’re in bottom spot, we’re nine points adrift, so although we’re now harder to beat, you do wonder where the wins are going to come from that are going to get us out of the drop zone.

No one is giving up – Rotherham aren’t that kind of club, they’re a real fighting club, but the bookmakers have got us to go down and they don’t often get it wrong. It might just be a case of doing as much as we can this season and then looking to go again in League One next year.

Leam Richardson has replaced Matt Taylor in the Rotherham hot seat since the Millers' visit to St Mary's in early October

You said about being harder to beat, so what’s Leam Richardson instilled since his appointment as head coach?

Defensive organisation. Rotherham were too easy to score against in the first half of the season. Leam has come in as a respected coach who did a great job at Wigan and immediately there was a tightening up defensively.

We’re not pretty to watch – you wouldn’t expect us to be, given the situation we’re in, but we’ve certainly stopped conceding a lot of goals. There was a 3-0 at Leicester when we conceded three times in the second half, but plenty of teams can do that at Leicester. Other than that, teams are struggling to create as many chances as they did.

We’ve got a great goalkeeper in Viktor Johansson – he’s not been as busy as he had to be earlier in the season, when he got us out of trouble with some great saves. Now it’s more of a collective effort.

Southampton are going to come here and have loads of the ball, but will find a really organised, resolute opposition in their faces, doing everything they can to keep them out.

Did Richardson make any January signings to boost his side’s survival chances?

It was a strange situation for Rotherham, being nine points shy of safety. You’re not an attractive proposition to genuine Championship quality players who are thinking, ‘it’s probably going to be League One next season on less wages’.

Rotherham are brilliantly-run financially, and can’t just throw money at hopeful signings to try and stay up, so we made three loan signings, which I think is a sensible approach, although it’s always going to annoy some fans that you’re not doing more.

Andy Rinomhota, the Cardiff midfielder; a young prospect from Sheffield United, Femi Seriki, a wing-back, who’s said to have lots of pace; and then after 11 o’clock last night Charlie Wyke, who’s banged in loads of goals at lower-league level. He’s played under Leam at Wigan before, so they know each other, and I’d expect to see him playing tomorrow.

Rotherham tend to be competitive in every game on home soil

Rotherham have already hosted Saints’ three main rivals for automatic promotion, drawing with Leeds, drawing with Ipswich and only losing late on to Leicester. Does that illustrate the sort of game Saints might be in for?

We also beat Middlesbrough and got a draw with Sunderland, who can beat anybody on their day. The Leicester game could’ve gone our way late on – it turned on a refereeing decision, which sometimes happens when a big club gets favoured against Rotherham in the Championship.

On their own patch, Rotherham turn up, and Southampton won’t have it easy. I have to say I’ve seen every club this season, and in terms of pure footballing ability and style, Southampton are the best I’ve seen, so no one from Rotherham is expecting to have much of the ball. I think the plan will be to try and stay in the game as long as possible, and then just see if we can pinch something.

It's the first time for Saints going to the AESSEAL New York Stadium. What’s the ground like, and what sort of atmosphere should the travelling fans expect?

It’s a cracking ground and when the atmosphere’s on, it’s really on. Rotherham did a really sensible thing; they built a really beautiful stadium but they didn’t make it too large – the capacity is 12,000.

There’s the facility there to build on top of that and up it to 20,000 quite quickly, but it’s currently 12,000 and close to full most weeks when we’re in the Championship and going well in League One.

Rotherham’s had some troubled times dating back to the ‘80s and the miners’ strike, the loss of the steel industry – it’s been a rundown town for too long. It was built in 2012 and, it sounds a bit over romantic, but it was like a beacon of hope that this great stadium suddenly popped up in the middle of this industrial wasteland. I think it gave the town some pride and some identity, and that’s never really gone away.

I’ve probably overindulged on that one, but it means something to the town. It’s like a little St Mary’s – yours is a Premier League setup, but in terms of the way it’s built and constructed, how it houses the fans relatively close to the pitch and everyone’s got a great view, so it’s a lot like that.