“As much as I’d want it to be” Sheffield Wednesday man accepts he’ll get Rotherham United boos

The Owls have shown signs of progress in their playing style under new manager Danny Röhl but remain on the hunt for their first win of the campaign after a 3-0 defeat at Plymouth Argyle on Wednesday evening. Rotherham will enter the clash with confidence, having achieved their second league win of the season the same night, a 2-0 home win over Coventry City.

One man who will be hoping to feature against his old club is Wednesday forward Michael Smith. The 32-year-old has come off the bench in both matches under Röhl so far. As the top scorer for Wednesday in League One last season, the Geordie target man arrived at S6 from Rotherham in a whirlwind double swoop with Michael Ihiekwe. The switch was seen as a controversial one by Millers fans, and speaking soon after the decision was made to move on, Smith ruefully accepted that his fan-favorite status at the New York Stadium would be tarnished.

Time has passed, and looking ahead to the fixture while speaking to The Star last month, Smith was asked whether he felt the passing of time could have calmed the strength of feeling on Rotherham terraces. He claimed 82 direct goal involvements across 210 appearances for the club but accepts that his Millers reception will likely not be a fond one.

“That would be the ideal situation, but I’m not daft enough to think it probably won’t be that way, as much as I’d want it to be,” he said. “It’s one of those things. As I said at the time, I made the decision to sign for Wednesday from Rotherham, and the fact is that I have got to live with a tainted reputation at Rotherham. That’s fine. It was my decision, and I’m big and ugly enough now to take the boos or whatever comes when we do play them.”

The man he made the move alongside in the summer of 2022, Michael Ihiekwe, has not yet featured in a matchday squad selected by Röhl. Will Vaulks, another former Millers man, played 12 minutes in the Plymouth loss in midweek.