Moment of Truth

The final episode of MOT begins back in January with the transfer window signing of Georgie Kelly, the top goalscorer in Irish football. It then cuts to the touchline at Gillingham with 11 minutes of the League One season remaining as Rotherham manager Paul Warne brings Kelly on for his Millers debut. Leading 1-0 but under heavy pressure, can the former Bohemians striker score a crucial second goal and fire his side back in the Championship at the first time of asking?

After the full-time whistle, the manager spends time with his team, his wife, the fans, and with the Gillingham manager Neil Harris before boarding the bus for the long journey back to Rotherham and the difficult task of releasing players.

The series finishes six weeks later as we catch up with both managers to discuss their respective summers; were they able to get any time off or did the managerial wheel keep spinning on their holidays? For Paul Warne there was the disappointment of losing two of his best players to bitter rivals Sheffield Wednesday during the break, and a never-ending series of phone calls; for Karl Robinson it was the possibility of leaving Oxford as a number of clubs made serious enquiries for his services. Before long, the pair are back in the dressing room addressing their players ahead of a new season.

In the penultimate episode, it’s all systems go for the final game of the season as Rotherham travel to relegation-threatened Gillingham knowing a win will put them back into the Championship. However, should MK Dons beat promotion rivals Plymouth and Rotherham fail to win, then Paul Warne’s exhausted side will fall into the lottery that is the playoffs.

The manager goes to visit his chairman Tony Stewart to discuss tactics ahead of the game, before a scare at the training ground forces Warne into a tactical decision that could have a huge impact on the outcome at Priestfield.

Ninety minutes before kick-off, Warne and his coaches look back to the last day of the previous season when a win at Cardiff would have kept them in the Championship, only to concede a late equaliser that relegated them. Then it’s time for the biggest speech of his life as he sends his men out into the Kent sunshine in the hope that his side will come off promoted. This is their Moment of Truth.

It’s halftime at the Stadium of Light and Rotherham lead by a goal to nil against promotion rivals Sunderland. Inside The Millers dressing room Paul Warne delivers a crucial speech to his team that he hopes will galvanise them for the second half, knowing they’re only 45 minutes away from promotion back to the Championship at the first time of asking.

The second half is tight and tense and, at full-time, the manager reflects on a vital night for his side inside the now-empty stadium where once the great Monkwearmouth Colliery stood.

Back in Oxford, Karl Robinson is mining for answers as to why his team fell short at the penultimate hurdle, missing out on the playoffs for the first time in three years. He gathers together his senior coaches – Wayne Brown, Leon Blackmore-Such and Craig Short – for a debrief into what went wrong, and what they need to change for next season.

There are two games left in Rotherham’s season and manager Paul Warne knows he needs a single win for his side to be guaranteed promotion to the Championship. But his team must travel to playoff-chasing Sunderland for a difficult Tuesday night fixture, which fills the manager with self-doubt. Not only that, he has to deal with the fallout from one of his players handing in a transfer request.

Warne’s emotions are contrasted with those of his captain Richard Wood. In the late autumn of his career, “Woody” discusses what the manager means to him personally, and how difficult it would be for the club if he were to walk away in the summer.

Ninety minutes before kick-off, the wives of the Rotherham coaches – Kerry Hamshaw, Tracy Barker and Rachel Warne – get together to talk about what it’s like to be married to a manager/coach, and how it affects their families because of the pressures of the job. The trio then watch on as The Millers and the Black Cats battle for a vital three points at the imposing Stadium of Light.

It’s crunch time for Oxford and Rotherham as they face each other in a critical League One match-up at the New York Stadium. Rotherham need a win to carry into the final two games and maintain their bid for automatic promotion – while, for Oxford, three points is an absolute must if they’re to continue in the race for the playoffs.

There’s a reunion of sorts as Karl Robinson and his former MK Dons assistant – now the Rotherham assistant manager – Richie Barker meet up again on the touchline ahead of the game, before the two teams kick-off and the pressure mounts in what turns out to be a very even game.

Issues in the crowd around the away bench become a focus for the authorities as abuse is hurled at the Oxford coaches, forcing Robinson to take it up with stadium authorities and the police as he threatens to have the game called off. After full-time, the two sets of coaching staffs meet in the Rotherham manager’s office for a debrief and a drink.

Despite the glorious afterglow of Oxford’s victory at Fleetwood, the club’s season is still in the balance. With three games left they sit eighth in the table, four points off the play-off places. With anything less than victory in their last three games spelling the end of Oxford’s season, Karl Robinson’s side must face his old team from Milton Keynes, where he and his family still live.

In the moments before kick-off, Robinson is tense as he addresses his side. His pleas for them to stick together and play at their best, however, fall on deaf ears. The boss grows increasingly irate on the sidelines at the team’s lacklustre performance. At half-time he reads them the riot act, singling out individual players and tearing strips off them for their unacceptable errors and seeming lack of desire, which he says are costing the coaches and support staff their livelihoods.

For Robinson, the match is personal. He was sacked by the chairman of MK Dons after six years at the helm and the ripple effects on wife Ann and daughter Jasmin were profound. In a fascinating portrait of family life with a football manager, Ann details how Karl’s ‘addiction’ to football saw them uproot their lives from Liverpool and nearly cost them their 18-year marriage. She says how much she dislikes “football Karl” as opposed to “husband Karl” and how difficult it has been navigating their lives alongside Karl’s job. The abuse the family has faced has particularly impacted Jasmin’s childhood. She suffered bullying at school over the performance of her dad’s teams and has learnt to avoid her dad after losses. Karl tearfully remembers the lowest point in his life after the death of his close personal friend Andy King, which drove Karl to the edge of despair.

Back at the Kassam Stadium for the second half of the MK Dons match, tension is relieved by Billy Bodin’s late winner which keeps Oxford’s play-off hopes alive – and inadvertently helps Rotherham stay second, despite their defeat to Burton. The two sides will face each other next, in the following episode. Karl reflects on their victory over his former team. “It’s amazing how quickly things change in football,” he says.

As the season draws to a close, tensions in the Rotherham dressing room are starting to boil over after a 3-0 loss to Portsmouth. Manager Paul Warne is trying to dissect why his side is self-imploding having previously been top of the league. The post-mortem lasts half an hour before Warne has to address the waiting press.

As night falls, Warne reveals that he’s considering his position and that this may be his lowest moment in management. He talks of the abuse fans have been shouting at him and how much he is dreading speaking to the club owner about the side’s performance. Sounding exhausted with how frustrating his job has become, he mentions how lonely he felt on the sidelines.

Like Rotherham, Oxford have also suffered three straight defeats. They need to win each of their last four to give themselves any chance of making the play-offs. Rotherham need to stop a slide that’s seen them take just five points from the last available 21.

As The U’s travel up to Fleetwood for the Easter Friday game, anything less than a win would be enough to end their season. The pressure, not only on the staff and players but their families, is beginning to show. Karl Robinson’s mum Carol talks about her own stress watching the games and how the abuse Karl has received from fans has affected their family.

Despite the tension, Oxford takes a quick 3-0 lead and just manage to hang on to a 3-2 victory during nine minutes of stoppage time. The win keeps their season alive but at the cost of midfielder James Henry, who is taken to hospital for two hours of facial surgery after a sickening clash of heads. He will be lost for the rest of the season.

Ahead of Rotherham’s fixture against Ipswich, Warne’s family are also feeling the pressure. His wife Rachel worries that her husband hasn’t been sleeping and dreads the abuse from fans if the side goes a goal down. In the tunnel, Paul says it is the most scared he has ever felt. Fortunately for the Warnes, Michael Smith nets a 78th-minute winner for Rotherham and favourable other results mean The Millers were now back in automatic promotion places – albeit on goal difference. For one night, there is relief. How quickly the picture can change.

Out of form striker Joshua Kayode is given reassurance from the manager about his performances but there’s bad news elsewhere as The Millers best player - midfielder Ben Wiles - apparently needs blood drained from his inflamed knee. Top goalscorer Michael Smith also needs an injection in his toe before the Pompey game if he’s to be able to play.

After two straight defeats at the business end of the season it feels like a do-or-die game for Oxford at home to Sunderland. The build-up to the match begins at the training ground, where groundsman/comedian Toby Rouss gives the lowdown on the mood around the club, how the players are bearing up, and then chatting with Karl about the Grand National, where his dad is a co-owner of the favourite. And while the season is very much alive, thoughts are already turning to the next campaign, and the need to organise some pre-season fixtures.

We sit on a meeting with the manager, the head of sport sciences Harry Routledge, and the director of performance Chris Neville, who for many years planned England’s World Cup and Euros campaigns. It’s an intricate jigsaw puzzle of fitness loading and game time, with Karl calling respective managers around the league – but none in League 1 – to arrange friendlies. Then, as the gloaming settles around the training ground, the manager’s thoughts turn back to Sunderland and how his team will have to experience “some dark places within them white lines” if they’re to keep their hopes of promotion alive. Onto game day and we’re with the physios as they try to get battered bodies ready for battle, including a hot stone massage for midfielder Herbie Kane and his sore back.

Then we’re with the manager in his office as he opens his mail and discusses the death threats he regularly receives as his staff watch the end of the lunchtime fixture in the Premier League. Thoughts turn to the Sunderland showdown. “If you get beat it can last for days,” says Karl, of the pain of defeat. “So it’s worth going to war for.”

With minutes to go before kick-off Herbie’s back goes again and there’s panic and more vigorous massage before Robinson sends his team out - with Kane – to face the Black Cats. With minutes to go it’s 1-1. Oxford have dominated. A point is probably a good result given the fact that all the teams around them, including Rotherham, have either lost or drawn, when suddenly the Mackems break away in the 89th minute to grab a winner.

There’s desolation in the dressing room. Robinson has to pick himself up as well as his team. “Trust in your talent and trust in each other,” he says, in an effort to reassure his team that no matter what, they’re not out of it. He finishes by saying what a dark night it will be for him.

As Paul Warne leads his Rotherham side out at Wembley in the final of Papa John’s Trophy, a few miles away Karl Robinson is pounding the capital’s streets, still seething from Oxford’s narrow defeat to Plymouth while he completes the London Landmarks Half Marathon.

Two days later Oxford travel to Lancashire to take on relegation-threatened Morecambe, needing a victory to get their play-off bid back on track. But injuries to four key players leave Karl with a depleted squad to call upon.

Ahead of the match, Karl and his assistant manager Craig Short reminisce over the old-school simplicity of coaching during their own playing careers, before the boss delivers an impassioned pre-match speech to his squad. But is his message getting through? With Morecambe’s keeper in inspired form, Oxford find their lowly opponents are no pushovers.

Karl takes a detour to his parents’ house on his way back to Oxford and questions the mindset of the modern footballer during his post-match debrief. How can you create a team bond when your players would rather drink a protein shake than go to the pub?