Artell about to renew Millmoor friendships

Dave Artell, who returns to his home town club with Morecambe tomorrow, was part of the rugged defensive unit (along with Guy Branston and Rob Scott) that helped the Millers defy the odds and gain promotion in that unforgettable season.

"It was just fantastic because we were expected to go down - I think we were 150-1 before the season started - and no-one really mentioned us at all until very near the end," recalls Dave.

"We just kept on winning and then I remember we went to Luton one Tuesday, our game in hand, about three games from the end, and 'Chris Sedgwick got the only goal at the far post late on.

"That put us in the driving seat and the following Saturday was the Brentford home game and everyone knows what happened next," he said.

The big central defender, born and raised in Rotherham and taken by his Millers supporting family as a toddler, did not start that season in the team but grabbed his chance when he got in it and, although no-one ever suggested he was cultured, he epitomised the example of the 100 per center giving at it everything for his club's cause.

"I remember getting my chance at Wrexham in a night match and how it came about. It was the time of the national petrol shortage and we got caught up in a rolling road block on the motorway and we did not arrive until 20 minutes before kick off.

"Wrexham refused to delay the kick off, we didn't have time for a warm-up and after just eight minutes Brian Wilsterman pulled a muscle and I went on."

He was to stay in the team and was not on the losing side in his first 13 games, the only game he missed in that spell through suspension, saw them lose.

Then only 20, he never got a chance at the next level. "Ronnie Moore told me he was going for experience, Chris Swailes came in and I didn't get a look-in," he recalls.

"I was disappointed but philosophical about it but there was no fall-out. It was said I was overweight but that wasn't the case, I could have been fitter but playing constantly in the Reserves meant I wasn't as sharp."

He admits to having a "terrible" six months on loan at Shrewsbury and he eventually left Millmoor and has since been at Mansfield and Chester (where he was Player of the Year last season) before joining newly-promoted Morecambe in the summer.

"It reminds of Rotherham some years ago, the family club feel, people can't do enough for you," he says.

"I had other offers but I had a feeling about taking my chance with Morecambe and Sammy McIlroy and the place buoyant after promotion. There's an ambitious chairman, talk of moving to a new ground.

"We play football and we've had a decent start. I'm not going to start talking about going up but I know we won't be in trouble at the other end."

Morecambe certainly made the football world take notice this season with their Carling Cup exploits when they won at Preston and then at Wolves.

That should serve as a warning to his boyhood club for tomorrow's Millmoor clash.