GARY ROWETT is embracing the endurance event that is the Championship and leading Millwall on an unlikely play-off push.
Well, it’s unlikely from the outside looking in — but not to Rowett and a team building one step at a time.
For him, success is literally a marathon, not a sprint as he’s doing it all while training for the TCS London Marathon next month.
Rowett is ninth in English League football’s longest-serving manager table, with 3½ years on the clock, so what has changed in that, er, long run?
He said: “The feel here is quite similar, the attitude, hard-working nature, underdog mentality and tough fighting spirit, all the things you’d expect.
“What we’ve tried to change is what we can now achieve.
“There’ve been players, managers here who have done great things, FA Cup finals, been in the old Division One, it’s not for me to comment on that.
“But when I came in, there was a little bit of a ‘staying up is great’ feel. A lot of staff would say ‘five points off the bottom three now’ or ‘it’s eight points now’.
“But I wanted to change that. Stop looking down, look up. I felt like we could do it, take the club forward on and off the field.”
Millwall are sixth and making a serious push for the play-offs, not a late dash with ‘nothing to lose’.
Far from accepting that puts more pressure on, Rowett sits up, lifts the smart glasses up his nose and is assertive in his response.
He said: “No. The trade-off is more confidence and belief. We’re not thinking, ‘How are we here?’
“Having finished eighth, 11th and ninth, it shows actually, we deserve to be there.”
Rowett had a three-year plan to turn the Lions into play-off contenders and sings the praises of owner John Berylson for helping him build the squad on a modest budget.
And as we sit in his ‘cosy’ training ground, it is clear Rowett still has the drive to keep going well beyond the end of this year — whatever happens.
Plans are approved for a much-needed state-of-the-art training ground nearby.
It will help not only with attracting first-team players, but also youngsters in an area bursting with talent often snapped up by Prem giants.
Rowett, 49, accepts he might not be at the club to see it, such is football, but very much hopes he is.
Asked if it is tough to keep that fire burning, Rowett said: “I’ve always gone into a job thinking long term.
“I wanted to build something here, take things as far as we can.
“Ultimately it’s a brilliant, brilliant club. At some point, perhaps I’ll feel I’ve done all I can but, at the moment, that’s right at the back of my mind.”
The underdog spirit is alive and well as Millwall are currently outgunning the might of Norwich, West Brom and Watford, all recently in the Prem.
Former Burton, Stoke and Derby boss Rowett said: “I’ve been at some of those teams with the pressure of parachute payments, the pressure is a lot more on those teams.
“Our only pressure is internal, to achieve something we haven’t for a few years.”
And despite a defeat by Huddersfield in their last outing, Millwall are ready to go again after the international break.
Plenty of other fans have one eye on their progress, as what a great story it would be if the ‘unfashionable’ club made it to the glitz and glamour of the Prem.
With the likes of Zian Flemming, the gifted Dutch forward nicknamed the Bermondsey Bergkamp, and recent Wales call-up Tom Bradshaw, Millwall are a bit more than the blood-and-thunder team most peg them as.
Those two have netted 27 league goals between them and add the class to a team as well-organised as the graphs and charts on Rowett’s office pin board.
The boss accepts that ‘understanding’ the home crowd has been key to their recent success to ensure The Den is always a bloody terrifying place to go.
Rowett added: “People will put you in a box of what they think you are and can do.
“In some ways, it feels like the ‘most Millwall’ feel since I’ve been here. We’ve embraced that.
“That’s one of our strengths, why not use it?”
In the recent 2-1 win over Swansea they were played off the park in the first half — but the crowd did not boo. Instead, there was a ‘hush’ and ‘mumblings’ and even a smattering of applause.
Rowett said: “You could tell they wanted to boo, we’d been battered. But they stayed with us.”
He hopes that means there’s now an element of trust in a relationship between coaching team and crowd that has not always been totally singing from the same sheet.
Rowett added: “You can interact with the crowd — if someone makes a great tackle, the crowd go nuts.
“Most of the time at our place you don’t need to because that atmosphere is there. But they want front-foot and goalmouth action, commitment.
“After 3½ years, believe it or not, I’m starting to understand that more.
Gritty, with a real community spirit, something a lot of big clubs have lost. There’s a lot to embrace, tap into and be proud of.
Gary Rowett
“We’re going to enjoy the last eight games. What a great position to be in, embrace it rather than be apprehensive.”
But with him being such a likeable guy and Millwall earning many admirers, is there a danger of losing that ‘no one likes us’ tag?
Rowett laughs, adding: “I don’t know about that!
“It’s easy to fall into that old rhetoric but there’s a lot here that a lot of clubs want.
“Gritty, with a real community spirit, something a lot of big clubs have lost. There’s a lot to embrace, tap into and be proud of.”
The community spirit is shown again as Rowett is running the marathon to raise money for the British Heart Foundation, in memory of huge Millwall fan Paul Jiggins — a Sun journalist who passed away last year.
Rowett has had an ambition of breaking the four-hour barrier for the marathon.
But this year, on April 23, he’s parking that to run with his daughter, Betsy.
Something which is not easy for the competitive edge when Rowett once clocked an official time of four hours and ONE second, despite his own watch saying 3:59:59.
With a puff of the cheeks at the thought of that day’s 19-mile training run and chats about cramp and injury, he added: “What an amazing opportunity to run it with your daughter.
“To help her with those highs and lows, she’ll help me, too. I’m putting times to one side.”
Last year’s marathon saw the fixture list give him Blackburn away the day before. This year? A trip to Wigan.
He said: “Not ideal. But once you do get to the start, it’s incredible.
“Although getting passed by a ten-foot foam Newcy Brown Ale bottle isn’t good for your ego.”
Rowett’s playing career was ended aged 30 by a knee injury and something tells me that someone less driven than him would not be managing that pain and still be running.
He added: “I ran with my dad from the age of about ten, it brings happy memories.
“I enjoy that grind. It’s easy to sit on your backside.
“A ten-miler in the rain, most people would think, ‘I don’t want this’. But it’s good for your soul, isn’t it? Just get out there and do it.”
That last line feels as though it could come straight out of a Rowett team talk. And with the finish line in sight, who would bet against Millwall with The Den behind them?
