Miller better late than never, Roy

AS a fan of Liam Miller I was sorely tempted to submit this week’s musings a little bit late.

However, like any walk of life, I was informed that it would be unacceptable.

The Corkman was transfer listed last week for his shoddy time-keeping, though it seems Keano is trying to give him a kick up the backside rather than ship him out. Miller has been our best midfielder this season, so I’m hoping we get a positive response from him instead of a farewell.

Early starts are something that the gaffer has insisted on at the Stadium of Light, with journalists dragged out of bed for press conferences before training, rather than the midday chats that we were previously used to.

If lazy hacks can make it in on time, surely the players can.

A quick straw poll from my mates found that, on average, we’ve been late maybe once or twice for work in the last year.

Roy reckons Liam has been delayed seven times. From teachers to shelf stackers, everyone knows it’s rude to not turn up to work on time. Miller is on a bit more than the minimum wage, so his time-keeping is his own responsibility.

His agent Eamon McLoughlin was quick to point out that there have been several car crashes on the stretch of road his player uses to get to the training ground. It sounds a bit too much like “the dog ate my homework” to me. Even if, as McLoughlin points out, it’s only ever a matter of minutes, it all adds up.

In his defence, though, our magazine’s training ground spy has informed us on several occasions that it’s the same person who is last onto the training pitch every day. No, it’s not the Leesider, but Keane’s old pal Dwight Yorke. Despite his ageing legs being too slow for the Premier League and his apparent delay starting training, he’s still one of our first choice players. Jobs for the boys Roy?

At Pride Park on Saturday we looked predictably limp in the middle without Miller. Neither Andy Reid or Kieran Richardson were fit enough to go full steam for 90 minutes, so by the hour mark we ran out of energy and struggled to create anything. That’s frighteningly worrying against a side as bad as Derby. And my God they were poor.

They’ve won only one game at home all season and that was against fellow relegation candidates Newcastle. It looked like the perfect tie to end our winless run away from the Stadium of Light. Having witnessed Sunderland limp to record breaking totals of 15 and 19 points in recent seasons, I’d happily back Derby to beat those figures.

Last season Keano dropped Tobias Hysen, Marton Fulop and Anthony Stokes after they were late for the team bus to Barnsley. Despite us having other players missing through injury and Hysen in particular in the middle of a good run on the left wing, they were left out and a makeshift side took to the field at Oakwell. We struggled that day, but two late goals meant that Keane got away with it.

Against Derby we dropped two vital points. In a bottom half of the table that could realistically still see 12th-placed Middlesbrough go down, we can’t afford to rely on our home form. Besides, if we can’t beat Derby, what hope does that give us of winning games on the road at other relegation candidates like Fulham? Worse still, the easy home games are running out. Everton and Chelsea are next up at the Stadium of Light, so it’s not as if we can expect anything out of either of those.

We won’t know if Keane has gotten away with dropping Miller until May. If he doesn’t it will be the biggest mistake of his managerial career. He’ll have cut off his nose to spite his Premier League face. We lacked guile and skill against Derby, something the silky midfielder would have provided us with. Having ran out of steam too early at Pride Park and with a reputation for us scoring late goals, it seemed obvious what we needed.

A player to turn up late and play a vital contribution. It was Miller time.

Martyn McFadden (www.a-love-supreme.com)