Rotherham United defender Clark Robertson says it was 'meant to be' that he was thrust into the Millers' starting XI for his match-winning performance at former club Blackpool on Saturday afternoon.

Robertson had not originally been named in the starting lineup for the match at Bloomfield Road, but after getting the late call-up, the 26-year-old set up Matt Smith for his side's opener six minutes into the second half, before Robertson himself doubled his side's lead with a half-volley into the far corner with just three minutes remaining.

That would prove to be the match-winner for Rotherham, with Armand Gnanduillet's stoppage-time penalty not enough to salvage anything for the hosts.

Speaking after the game about how he ended up in Paul Warne's starting XI on Saturday, Robertson was quoted by The Blackpool Gazette as saying: “I wasn’t meant to be playing.

“I was kicking the ball about in the warm-up as if I wasn’t starting but then I walked down the tunnel and the gaffer said Joe Mattock wasn’t fit, so he told me to get myself ready.

“I was thrown in and it was almost as if it was meant to be, coming here and scoring the winner."

Robertson had spent three years at Blackpool before moving to Rotherham in the summer of 2018, and discussing what it was like to play at Bloomfield Road again, the defender continued: “I’m just delighted coming back here. I’ve not played in front of a crowd like this here before as we only used to get a few thousand fans.

“It was good to play in front of a big crowd at Bloomfield Road.”

Reflecting on his overall performance, which saw him go up against one of Blackpool's key attacking outlets in the shape of winger Liam Feeney, Robertson added: “I was pretty relaxed about it as you don’t have much time to think about it, so I just went out there to play myself into the game and I thought I did well.

“We knew Liam Feeney was going to be a threat but I thought I limited him in terms of the amount of crosses he put in.

“I just tried to get as tight as I could and stop him from getting on the ball because if you stop him you’re halfway there to stopping what they do by putting balls into the box towards big Armand (Gnanduillet)."

Saturday's result made it back to back league wins for Rotherham, who are now tenth in the League One table, ahead of the visit of Oxford United on Saturday afternoon.

The Verdict

Right from the moment they saw Robertson had been brought into the side, Blackpool fans will have known this was going to happen, won't they?

It seems to be one of football's great inevitabilities that players will always score against their old clubs, and that irony will only have been heightened here by the fact that Robertson hadn't even been meant to start for Rotherham.

Having done so however, and made the impact that he did, you feel the defender will surely be more confident now that he will retain that spot going forward.

Indeed, with the all-round performance he put in, it seems there is very little reason for Paul Warne not to select him against Oxford on Saturday.

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