A huge Friday night EFL Championship fixture in the battle against relegation, well for one of the teams involved at least.
Can Plymouth Argyle address their alarming slide down the table?
Rewind to mid-December, the Pilgrims prevailed 3-2 in the reverse fixture at Home Park, courtesy of Morgan Whittaker’s 96th minute winner, a result that left them a respectable 16th in the table.
Well, three days later, Steven Schumacher departed to fill the vacancy at Stoke, with Ian Foster appointed as his successor, his first job in senior management for 13 years, having been in charge of England’s youth teams.
As Plymouth now prepare to make this long 290 mile journey to South Yorkshire, Foster is no longer in charge, sacked on April Fools’ Day, following form that was no laughing matter.
On Easter Monday, the Pilgrims were beaten 1-0 by Bristol City at home, meaning they’ve yielded just a solitary point from their last six matches, suffering defeat in eight of their last 11.
This leaves Argyle hovering just one point and one place above the relegation zone, in danger of making an immediate return to League One.
After this, their remaining fixtures are QPR (H), Leicester (H), Stoke (A), Millwall (A) and Hull (H), meaning every point counts, making this a must-win match for interim boss Neil Dewsnip.
As for hosts Rotherham United, this could be the night their relegation is confirmed, following yet another miserable Championship campaign.
The Millers claimed just their fourth win of the entire campaign on Monday, Charlie Wyke’s late goal snatching victory over Millwall, delaying their impending relegation for another few days at least.
Nevertheless, having lost ten of their previous 11, Leam Richardson’s team remain rock-bottom, 18 points from safety with only 18 points left to play for, meaning anything less than a win here will seal their fate.
Amazingly, Rotherham have bounced between the second and third tiers in six of the previous seven seasons, the most-recent campaign finally breaking this cycle, but they will not be able to beat the drop again.
Thus, this game is all about Argyle, so can they massively boost their own survival chances with victory at the New York Stadium?
Plymouth Argyle to win
As alluded to earlier, Plymouth did win the reverse fixture 3-2 in Devon, so are now seeking to complete a first league-double over the Millers since 1998/99.
The Pilgrims have lost three of their last four visits to the New York Stadium, their most-recent victory in South Yorkshire coming two decades ago, this so long ago it actually came at Millmoor.
Having said all of that, we are backing Neil Dewsnip to enjoy a new-manager bounce, largely because Plymouth are desperate for the points, while Rotherham are just dreadful, with the hosts aiming to secure back-to-back wins in the second-tier for the first time since October 2022.
Both teams to score and over 2.5 goals
The clash at Home Park in December ended 3-2 and we’re expecting another high-scoring affair here.
Eight of Rotherham’s last 11 matches have witnessed 3+ goals, the vast majority of which have been scored by the opposition.
Meantime, both teams have scored in 27 of Plymouth’s 45 matches across all competitions this season (60%).
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