Comfortable Bristol City host fighting Rotherham

Whilst Bristol City’s Championship status is not at all in jeopardy, Rotherham United are scrapping for their lives in the second tier. The Millers visit Ashton Gate this weekend.

Rotherham’s last Championship outing was certainly a controversial one. The side from South Yorkshire were forced into action against Watford in which the Hornets ran out comfortable 4-1 winners. But the fixture took place just a day after the majority of the Rotherham squad had returned to training as 25 players and staff had just completed their isolation period after testing positive for COVID-19.

Nevertheless, the fixture schedule is intense this season and Rotherham now have four games in hand on Birmingham City, to try and claw back the six-point difference between them and Championship safety.

Bristol City have had a steady start to life under new boss Nigel Pearson with three wins, a draw, and two losses from their first six matches with the former Watford boss in charge.

The Robins come into the weekend’s fixture off the back of a 0-0 stalemate against Blackburn Rovers. A result that typifies their league position, average. City are 13th in the standings with 12 points separating them from the top six and 17 points from relegation troubles; Pearson’s side will almost certainly be playing in the second-tier next season.

The Millers will certainly have fire in their bellies this weekend, good results in their games in hand are crucial to ensure their second-tier survival. They will be without Jamie Lindsay, Joe Mattock, Chiedozie Ogbene and Clark Robertson this weekend, as they all remain sidelined with injury that will no doubt hurt their fight for survival.

In the opposite camp, Nathan Baker and Andreas Weimann are out for the Robins whilst Hakeeb Adelakun and Jay Dasilva are doubtful for the home side. None of the four injured players have contributed during Pearson’s management so far.

So with both sides carrying a comparable number of injuries, neither side is particularly disadvantaged for the fixture. The same couldn’t be said for Rotherham’s defeat against Watford, but they must shrug off any disappointment from that match and focus primarily on their fight for survival.

In the last match between these two sides, Paul Warne’s Millers saw off Dean Holden’s City 2-0. It was a fairly comfortable affair for Warne’s side, as they statistically dominated the visitors with 22 shots compared to the Robins’ four.

The result started a three-match losing run for Holden’s side, which turned out to be a sign of things to come as a month later his side lost seven in a row, which saw the City boss lose his job. The turgid run of form included a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Watford.

There is no doubt that the Robins are aware of their league position, they won’t feel threatened by relegation but they certainly don’t seem up to the task of pushing for a top-six spot. With some sides, complacency might be a worry, but that kind of attitude would not be taken to kindly be Pearson, a manager that generally gets his teams working very hard.

So whilst Rotherham will be fighting tooth and nail for every point for the remainder of the season, they will certainly have their work cut out for them this weekend, and having lost six of their last seven matches, they will certainly need to pull something out of the bag to get the job done at Ashton Gate.

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