Rotherham v Pompey: the opposition view

He got a bit of a hammering from Millers supporters in the game at Fratton Park for his 39 days in charge here.

There’s not been quite as much talk about it ahead of the return, although manager Paul Warne spoke about how much he picked up from him in his short time at the club.

Warne was fitness coach to Jackett and said he will shake his hand and give him a warm welcome.

I think it will be a bit of a sideshow, although I doubt he’ll be getting too much of a warm reception from the supporters.

The club certainly aren’t stoking it up. Jackett left and they will want to prove he made the wrong decision by leaving, but I think that’s it.

Last season was horrendous from Rotherham as they crashed out of the Championship.

It was a nightmare for the club but there’s been some decent summer recruitment and they started reasonably.

After that, though, they had quite a bad dip through autumn when they went seven games without a league win.

Then, in early December, they started to pick up and they are now seven games without a defeat going into the weekend.

That’s despite losing Kieffer Moore, the top scorer with 13 goals, leaving and eventually signing for Barnsley after returning to parent club Ipswich.

In the last week, skipper Lee Frecklington has left and joined Lincoln.

Even with players going, they are still managing to pick up results and have ridden the losses quite well.

Michael Smith is now set to make his first start. He may not have scored a lot of goals elsewhere, but neither did Moore before he came here – and he was brilliant.

Ryan Williams is another former Portsmouth player who’s here.

He’s got more games under his belt this season than he had in the previous two put together. Williams has looked okay and he scored last week against Oldham.

He’s been one of the first names on the team-sheet this season and has been lively.

Williams is a player who stands up and he doesn’t go hiding.

Joe Mattock is also here and signed a new deal in the summer. He’s been about for quite a while now and is a steady solid type of player.

David Ball is the player to look out for and is in good scoring form.

As for ambitions, the top 10 wouldn’t be disastrous after last season, with the play-offs being a bonus.