Rotherham United

Rotherham sits on the River Don in South Yorkshire, a town built on coal and steel that lost both within a generation, and New York Stadium now stands close to where one of the old ironworks used to run. The club took its current shape in 1925, when Rotherham County and Rotherham Town merged, closing out separate histories that ran back through Thornhill United to a side founded in 1870. The colours changed too, from amber and black to the red and white worn now, sometime around 1930.

The Millers have spent most of their life moving between divisions rather than settling in one, and the club's two trips to the Championship both came through Wembley. In 2014 they beat Leyton Orient on penalties in the League One play-off final, then returned four years later and saw off Shrewsbury Town 2-1, with captain Richard Wood scoring twice. Paul Warne managed that side, and stayed long enough to add the EFL Trophy in 2022, when Rotherham beat Sutton United 4-2 after extra time. It wasn't the club's first trophy at Wembley — Nigel Jemson had scored both goals there in the 1996 Football League Trophy final against Shrewsbury.

Danny Williams holds the appearance record, 621 games in a Rotherham shirt, a figure that sets him apart from anyone who has played for the club since. Ronnie Mour, in an earlier spell as manager, took Rotherham up in successive seasons either side of the millennium; Steve Evans matched that feat a decade later, back-to-back promotions from League Two into the Championship in 2013 and 2014.

None of that has ever mattered more locally than the games against Barnsley, the South Yorkshire derby, or the meetings with Doncaster Rovers just down the road. New York Stadium holds 12,021, modest by design, and on derby day it still fills with the same red and white that has followed the club through all the moves up and down.