Town boss Kieran McKenna has warned that Tuesday’s opponents Rotherham United have been competitive in most matches this season, despite the Millers sitting bottom of the table, 14 points from safety.

The Blues remain fourth in the Championship, one point behind Southampton, who host Hull City on Tuesday, and three behind second-placed Leeds, who aren’t in action this midweek having played a game more than Town and the Saints.

McKenna’s men will be playing their third match in seven days, having won 4-0 at Millwall last Wednesday and then 2-1 in very heavy conditions at Swansea City on Saturday.

“It’s that phase of the season where games are coming thick and fast and recovery’s absolutely massive and we do everything we can here to help them with that, and the staff do a really good job,” McKenna told TownTV.

“But it’s also the players’ responsibility as well to be a top professional. You need to be ready to go every couple of days for 90 minutes, that’s what you have to be ready for.

“Of course, not everyone’s going to play those minutes, but that’s what everyone has to prepare themselves for.

“The players are fully aware of that. We’ll recover well over the next day to get ready for the game and we’ll make sure we’re ready to go again on Tuesday night.”

McKenna says the squad’s Monday morning training session will have been tailored to the frequency of games and the lengthy journey back from South Wales on Saturday night.

“Of course,” he said. “Not just because of the long trip but within 48 hours of the game, the players are still in the recovery process, so we’ll be careful with those who started the game.

“The other ones will be able to get a little bit more work in but then they’ve got to be ready for tomorrow night as well.

“We’re well used to finding a balance to these things and making sure that physically, mentally and tactically we’re as ready for the game as we can be.”

The Northern Irishman says he’ll look to tweak his side given the amount of football his players have been involved in over the last week and with subs again set to play an important part.

“Full use of the squad might be changes, we had a few in midweek, but it’s also impact off the bench,” he continued.

“We had that on Wednesday night at Millwall and we had it on Saturday as well and sometimes impact from the bench isn’t coming on and scoring a goal, sometimes it’s coming on and doing your defensive work, doing the work on set plays, helping the team to see out a lead, and I thought the players who came on on Saturday did a fantastic job at that.

“We’ve got a really committed squad of players here and whether they start or they’re in the squad, or even those who might not be involved, they all know they’ve got a big part to play in trying to help us perform and win matches.”

Having been away two games in a row, McKenna is pleased to be back on home turf for back-to-back matches with Birmingham City in Suffolk on Saturday for a rare 3pm kick-off.

“It’s nice, we love playing at Portman Road, we love the midweek games as well under the floodlights,” he said.

“It doesn’t make it necessarily easier because we know the two teams coming here, Rotherham on Tuesday night, are going to do everything in their power to make the game really, really difficult for us and we’re going to have to be at our very best to break them down and to counteract their threats.

“But it’s nice to not have the travel, it’s nice to have the home support behind us and it’s nice to have two back-to-back games where we know we’re going to have the crowd and we’ll be playing on our pitch, and we’ll go and really try and attack those games and do as well as we possibly can.”

Since the teams met at the New York Stadium in November and drew 2-2, the Millers have changed manager with Paul Cook’s former Wigan assistant Leam Richardson having taken over in December after Matt Taylor’s sacking.

“It seems to be the case more games than not at the moment,” McKenna reflected. “Leam’s a very good manager, he knows a lot of our players, he knows our team and our group well from the Wigan times as well.

“They’ll be fully aware of what our strengths are, we’re fully aware of what their strengths are and the qualities they have and we know they’re going to try and make it a difficult game, and it will be a difficult game, so we’re going to have to do really well to come out on top of it.”

Rotherham, bottom on 19 points, have won one in their last 21 in all competitions, one in 20 in the league, and are without a win in their last nine, eight in the league, losing their last four, all in the Championship, most recently Saturday’s 1-0 reverse at home to Watford.

The Millers are still to win away from home this season with their most recent success on the road at Sheffield United in November 2022, who they beat 1-0. This season they have drawn four and lost 11 on their travels.

Rotherham are the joint-lowest scorers in the division alongside fellow South Yorkshiremen Sheffield Wednesday, having netted 26, while no one has conceded more than the 60 they have shipped.

Away, the Millers and Owls are again the joint-lowest scorers having found the net just nine times and Rotherham have conceded 37 goals on their travels, the most in the division by five.

But despite their present predicament, McKenna says the Millers have been in most of their matches with the narrow scoreline against the Hornets fairly typical, while they have drawn with the likes of Middlesbrough - who they also beat 1-0 in their most recent victory on Boxing Day - Sunderland, at home to Leeds United and Town.

“I see them competing every week,” he said. “There have been very few games when they’ve not been in the game, maybe the Leeds [away] game [which they lost 3-0] was a little bit more comfortable, but they can do that, they did that to us at Elland Road.

“But I think every other game they’ve been competitive, they’ve been in the game until the last minutes very often.

“They’ve taken points off some of the bigger teams as well and better teams in the league.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game, every game in the Championship is.

“We know they’re fighting for points in the same level of motivation we are and, as I say, we can only then focus on ourselves, make sure our motivation is at the highest level, which I know it will be and beyond that, try and play as well as we possibly can.”

McKenna is likely to stick with largely the same starting line-up from the previous two fixtures with Vaclav Hladky in goal and Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess again probably the centre-halves and Leif Davis and Harry Clarke the full-backs.

Sam Morsy will skipper from central midfield but with Lewis Travis perhaps coming in alongside him with Massimo Luongo having started the last three matches.

Conor Chaplin, who netted his 100th Championship goal and his 50th for the Blues at the weekend, is set to start in the centre of the three behind the central striker with Wes Burns probably returning on the right.

Jeremy Sarmiento or Marcus Harness could start on the left of the three with 11-goal top scorer Nathan Broadhead also having started the last three matches.

One-time Millers loanee Kieffer Moore has also begun all those games and so manager McKenna could give Ali Al-Hamadi his first Town start, the Iraq international having made an impression from the bench in his three matches so far, scoring his first goal for the club from the penalty spot against Millwall.

Rotherham had five players unavailable for the Watford match due to injury, although veteran Northern Irish international full-back Shane Ferguson made his first appearance from the season from the bench.

Tyler Blackett, Grant Hall, Andre Green, Cohen Bramall and Daniel Ayala all missed out.

Town have won 16 of the previous games between the sides (15 in the league), nine have ended in draws (nine), with the Millers having won 13 (13), including the last four in the league.

The Blues have won only one of the last 10 between the teams in the league since winning 5-2 in South Yorkshire more than eight years ago when Daryl Murphy netted a hat-trick.

At the New York Stadium in November, Christ Tiehi netted a 91st-minute equaliser to deny the Blues all three points as the teams drew 2-2.

Sam Nombe gave the Millers the lead in the fourth minute but Blues skipper Morsy levelled with a brilliant strike on 19.

Town looked to have won it when Jack Taylor, who is currently out with a quad injury, scored three minutes from the end but Tiehi struck back in injury time to claim a share of the points for the South Yorkshiremen.

The teams last met at Portman Road in the FA Cup third round in January last year, the first ever cup meeting between the sides, when Town comprehensively won 4-1.

The Blues went in front just before half-time through Cameron Humphreys, but Conor Washington levelled for the Millers two minutes after the restart.

However, a Town penalty netted by Chaplin, a goal against his old club from Freddie Ladapo and a third spot-kick of the match from Burns saw the Blues to a comfortable victory.

In the league, the teams last met in Suffolk in November 2021 when a goal in either half from Ben Wiles and Ferguson saw Rotherham to a comfortable 2-0 victory, extending the Millers’ unbeaten run to 15 games and taking them to the top of League One.

Wiles opened the scoring on 24 with a shot from the edge of the box with Ferguson adding the second a minute before the hour with Town never looking like getting back into the match.

Town loan frontman Moore spent a hugely successful loan spell at Rotherham from the Blues in the first half of 2017/18, a stint which kick-started his career.

Moore, who had cost Town £25,000 when he signed from Forest Green Rovers in January 2017, scored 13 times in 19 League One starts and three sub appearances, a tally which led to a £750,000 move to Barnsley in January 2018.

Fellow Blues striker Ladapo, who is currently on loan at Charlton, left the Millers in the summer of 2022 prior to signing for Town having spent three years in South Yorkshire.

Ladapo joined Rotherham in June 2019 and scored 41 goals in 78 starts and 41 substitute appearances.

Currently injured Town frontman George Hirst spent 2020/21 on loan with the Millers, making four Championship starts and 27 sub appearances (plus one more in the FA Cup) without scoring.

Midfielder Dominic Ball was with the Millers between 2016 and 2019, making 14 starts and one sub appearance.

Tuesday’s referee is Keith Stroud from Hampshire, who has shown 96 yellow cards and one red in 19 games so far this season.

Veteran official Stroud’s most recent visit to Portman Road was for the 4-3 victory over Blackburn Rovers in September in which he booked Morsy, Chaplin, Hirst and four of the visitors.

He also took charge of the pre-season friendly against West Ham in the summer of 2022 but prior to the Rovers match it had been more than four years since he previously took charge of a competitive Town match, the 1-1 home draw with Nottingham Forest in March 2019 in which he cautioned only two of the visitors.

Before that, he refereed the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in January of the same year in which he awarded a highly contentious penalty against Alan Judge after John McGinn had gone to ground in the area, while denying the Blues what looked a more obvious spot-kick when Collin Quaner’s goalbound shot was handled by Tommy Elphick. In addition, Stroud booked Myles Kenlock and three home players.

He was also in charge of the 3-0 loss at QPR on Boxing Day 2018 in which Matthew Pennington, Luke Chambers and one home player were cautioned.

Stroud was the man in the middle for the 2-1 defeat to West Brom in November that year and again yellow-carded Pennington and three visiting players.

Prior to that he took charge of the 4-0 victory at Reading in April 2018 in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout.

He also refereed the 4-1 defeat at Fulham in three months earlier in which he red-carded Jordan Spence and booked Chambers, Joe Garner, Callum Connolly, Martyn Waghorn and three Cottagers.

Before that he took control of the 2-2 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday in November 2017 when he booked Skuse and one Owl. However, he failed to issue a card of either colour for Glenn Loovens’s groin-high horror challenge on David McGoldrick.

He was also the ref for the Blues’ 1-1 draw at Leeds in February of the same year in which he booked only Jonas Knudsen.

Stroud was the man in the middle of the 3-2 win at Wigan in December 2016, awarding the Blues a contentious penalty, which was converted by Brett Pitman, and booked the striker, Andre Dozzell, Tom Lawrence and three home players.

Before that, he was in charge of the 4-2 victory over Barnsley at Portman Road on the opening day of 2016/17 when he also awarded the Blues a penalty which was converted by McGoldrick. He booked Bishop, Kevin Bru and three Tykes.

He refereed the 3-2 home victory over the MK Dons in the final home match of 2015/16, in which he cautioned Tommy Smith and one opposition player and awarded the visitors a spot-kick.

Stroud officiated in the 1-1 home draw with Birmingham in September 2015 in which he gave the Blues another penalty, again netted by Pitman, which was bitterly disputed by the visitors when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was felled by Jonathan Spector. He yellow-carded Christophe Berra, Jonathan Douglas and two visiting players.

A former Premier League referee and one-time FIFA assistant, Stroud also refereed the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in January 2015, the 1-0 derby defeat to Norwich at Portman Road in August 2014 and Town’s 1-0 home victory over Birmingham in March of the same year.

Squad from: Hladky, Walton, Clarke, Davis, Humphreys, Tuanzebe, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Burgess, Morsy (c), Travis, Luongo, Ball, Burns, Chaplin, Broadhead, Harness, Aluko, Hutchinson, Sarmiento, Moore, Al-Hamadi, Jackson.

Photo: TWTD

IpswichT62OldBoy added 17:37 - Feb 20 I think if we score early we will score a lot, 3 or more.
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