Matt Taylor: Rotherham United sack manager with club 22nd in Championship

Matt Taylor kept Rotherham in the Championship last season, something his predecessor Paul Warne was unable to achieve

Rotherham United have sacked manager Matt Taylor with the club 22nd in the Championship.

His final match was their 5-0 defeat at Watford on Saturday, which left the Millers four points from safety.

Taylor had been with the Yorkshire club for 13 months, after leaving Exeter City to replace Paul Warne at the New York Stadium.

He kept Rotherham up last season, but he departs after just two wins from their 16 league games this season.

Taylor, 41, becomes the seventh Championship manager to leave his job so far this campaign.

In a statement released by the club chairman Tony Stewart said the search for a new manager was already under way, with the club’s next match at home to Leeds United on 24 November.

Stewart saidexternal-link: “It was felt by myself and the board that we had to act now by making a managerial change in order to give ourselves the best possible chance of retaining our Championship status this season.”

Tough act to follow

Taylor had impressed in leading Exeter to promotion from League Two in 2021-22, before he was recruited by Rotherham.

But he had a tough act to follow in taking over from Warne in October last year, even though the Millers were 11th in the table at the time.

His Rotherham side eventually secured their Championship status with a home win over Middlesbrough in the penultimate game of the season as they finished 19th, six points above the bottom three. It also broke their yo-yo habit of the previous six seasons, in which they had either been promoted or relegated between the second and third tiers.

There were other notable scalps, including a shock 1-0 win over neighbours Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

However, that success on 8 November last year was their last on the road, and their away form has been a huge problem this season.

The Millers have been competitive at home, as they showed in drawing 2-2 with Ipswich last Tuesday, but have only one point on the road, culminating in that heavy defeat at Vicarage Road.

Taylor said after what proved to be his final game in charge that his worry was that “it’s a group of players who aren’t believing”.

‘Huge challenge for next boss’

Analysis – Andy Giddings, BBC Radio Sheffield

The task at Rotherham United is always to achieve or maintain Championship status.

When hope of that fades, you’re in bother as Matt Taylor found out this morning.

The away form – never good at Rotherham in the second tier – seems strangely worse and now cut adrift of fourth bottom, change is both harsh and inevitable.

It’ll be interesting to see who chairman Tony Stewart goes for next. An up-and-coming boss or an experienced head. Either way the size of the challenge ahead is huge.

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