By modern football standards, Rotherham boss Ronnie Moore might seem lucky to still have a job.
 |  It feels like your're always banging your head against a brick wall unless you can get on a really good run |
Under his guidance this season, the Millers took 21 attempts to register their first league win, a 1-0 victory over bitter Yorkshire rivals Leeds which was, in the manager's own words, "lucky".
Many managers - with better records than Moore - have already said goodbye to their clubs this season.
Yet he is still loved by the Millers' faithful - 84% backed him in a recent newspaper vote, and he enjoyed a landslide victory in Rotherham's Football Focus 'Cult Heroes' vote, garnering a whopping 76%.
Strange? It certainly seems Moore is virtually critic-proof in a certain part of Yorkshire - but the likeable 51-year-old has a mundane explanation for his popularity.
"People talk about no loyalty in football. Well, there is loyalty here," he told BBC Sport.
"The fans are absolutely magnificent. Look at where we are in the table - yet supporters clap me when I come on to the pitch at the start of games."
Moore is reaping the rewards of a remarkable record at Millmoor which has transformed Rotherham from basement division also-rans into Championship regulars.
"For seven years we've had wonderful times. We know in football that it doesn't go on like that," he said.
| RONNIE'S ROTHERHAM RECORD 1997-98: 9th Div 3 1998-99: 5th Div 3 1999-00: 2nd Div 3 2000-01: 2nd Div 2 2001-02: 21st Div 1 2002-03: 15th Div 1 2003-04: 17th Div 1 |
"Things change but the fans remember the progress we've made, and I can't ask for any more loyalty."
Fans' goodwill is not endless, of course, and Rotherham remain in desperate trouble with almost half the season gone.
But Moore does not accept it is Rotherham and two others for the drop this season.
"We're eight points off safety now - we lose to Brighton on Saturday and it could go back to 11," he said.
"It feels like you're banging your head against a brick wall unless you get on a really good run.
"I never say die. But it's going to be hard."
A touch of luck never hurts, and Moore demonstrated that most elusive of qualities in 2001-02, when the Millers avoided the drop on goal difference.
"We're not a million miles away from the other teams in the league. We've got a decent squad," he said.
"The better teams at this level have the better strikers. And I don't think there's an awful lot of difference after that.
"A lot of clubs could be dragged into the relegation fight. Nottingham Forest are not having much luck and Brighton and Cardiff need results."
The current slump means one football perennial - the linking of Moore with every vacant managerial post in the top two divisions - has been absent this year.
| I had a diary when I was a player here in 1981, and I wrote 'I'll come back here and become manager - it's a bit eerie now it's happened! |
The man himself takes it in his stride.
"It's flattering to be linked with so many jobs. It proves you're doing something right," he said.
"Although I'm not linked with so many now we're bottom!
"But football's about what you're doing - not what you've done.
"You must be realistic. As a club with 5,500-6,000 supporters on average, and a wage bill of �2.2m, it's nigh on impossible for us to compete at this level.
"The dream for our supporters is not the Premiership, but the Championship - can we stay here?"
That question remains unanswered - but one certainty is that Ronnie Moore and Rotherham seem to be inextricably linked.
"When I was a player here I had a diary in which I wrote: 'I'll come back one day and become manager'," he said.
"That was in 1981. It's a bit eerie for it to actually happen!
"I had three magnificent years as a player here. I couldn't score a goal at Cardiff, I got about five goals in 56 games there, but I came here and got 60-odd goals in 110 games.
"I just think it was meant to be."
MMIX
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