Blackpool game was a last-chance saloon, admits Rotherham United manager Paul Warne
The Millers chief, speaking ahead of tomorrow's game at Bloomfield Road, enjoyed a relieving trip to the seaside in December 2017, albeit complete with a roller-coaster experience with the hosts leading 1-0 going into the final quarter on the Fylde coast, only for the visitors to turn the tables and triumph 2-1.
It was widely perceived to be the season-defining moment in a 2017-18 campaign which famously ended in promotion to the Championship for Warne's Millers at Wembley.
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Hide AdWarne, whose side went into that game on a six-match winless streak in the league - with the win at Blackpool being the precursor to a magnificent 14-game unbeaten run featuring 11 wins - recalled: "I remember virtually all of it. We played a different system, then we had a heated debate as coaches at half-time before we went into see the players.
"I knew the feeling from the fans and it felt a little bit like a 'last-chance saloon', a little roll of the dice.
"I asked them to play with a bit more passion and play forward a bit more and it ended up being a good day.
"I have got good memories there. It is a good place for me to go, some grounds have not got any good memories, but Blackpool is a nicer place for us to go and hopefully it will be this season."
And if the Millers had lost on that fateful day, Warne quipped: "I reckon my hair would be longer, my blood pressure would be less and I might have a different role at a different football club."