Rotherham United

Rotherham are one of a handful of clubs currently without a home, playing their home games at the Don Valley Athletics Stadium in Sheffield. However, the club has now secured a site on Mangham Road on the edge of Rotherham and work could begin soon on a new stadium.

Rotherham were formed in 1870 and for a while were overshadowed by other sides in the town. For much of their early years they shared a ground with the local cricket club at Clifton Lane and in 1885 or so they added the suffix Town to their name. In 1888 they were founder members of the Midland League and in 1891 Rotherham Town moved to Clifton Grove. That year Town made history by becoming the first team to score with a penalty kick, against Darlington St Augustine's. In 1892 the Second Division of the Football League was extended from 12 to 16 clubs and Rotherham were elected to the League.

However, three years later the club ceased to exist, being reborn in 1899 as Rotherham FC as a merger of Rotherham Casuals and Rotherham Grammar School. In 1903 they won the Sheffield Association championship and adopted the suffix Town two years later to the annoyance of local rivals Thornhill United, who considered themselves the senior team in the area and who were renamed Rotherham County. In 1907 County moved from their Red House ground to Millmoor and between 1911 and 1914 they won the Midland League in four successive seasons. In 1919 County's application to join the Football League was accepted, with Town joining the Midland League. In 1923 County were relegated to Division Three North while Town's existence looked to be in doubt, and in May 1925 Town were wound up and with County finishing bottom of Division Three North a new club called Rotherham United was formed to take over their League place.

Between 1947 and 1949 Rotherham finished runners-up in Division Three North in three successive seasons, and in 1951 they finally won the championship and promotion to Division Two. In 1955 they finished level on points with Newcastle United and Luton Town, but finished third on goal average and missed out on promotion to Division One. In 1961 the Millers reached the final of the first League Cup. losing the two-legged final 3-2 on aggregate, after extra time, to Aston Villa. In 1968, under Tommy Docherty's management, Rotherham were relegated to Division Three, and five years later they dropped into the Fourth Division, achieving promotion back to the Third in 1977.

In 1981 Rotherham won the Third Division but they were placed in administration in 1983 and were relegated from Division Two. They dropped back into the Fourth in 1988 but were immediately promoted again as champions, dropping back in 1991, and going up again the following season. As a welcome respite from the seasickness induced by all this to-ing and fro-ing, the club won the Auto Windscreens Shield at Wembley in 1996 beating Shrewsbury Town 2-1. For all the good it did them as they went down again the next season. In 1999 they reached the Fourth Division play-offs, but were beaten in the semi-finals on a penalty shoot-out by Leyton Orient following two 0-0 draws. They did win promotion the following season and, instead of instant relegation, they bucked their own trend by gaining a second successive promotion to find themselves in Division Two again, surviving their first season on goal difference.

Rotherham finally succumbed to their inevitable relegation in 2005, and they just survived another drop in 2006. Despite surviving, the club was suffering financially and entry into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) saw them deducted ten points at the start of the next season, with relegation the inevitable result. In March 2008 the club again entered administration, leading to another ten point deduction which effectively denied Rotherham promotion. Because they didn't exit administration via another CVA they had to start the 2008-09 season with a 17-points deduction and were forced out of Millmoor after disputes with their landlords, paying the Football League a bond of