It felt like I had never been away when I returned to my old club Rotherham at the weekend.

I spent six years there but left in 1996 to join Bristol City.

I had expected there to have been a lot of changes, so I was surprised to see a lot of the old faces that were at Millmoor when I was there.

They were more on the official side than the playing side, the people in the Players' Lounge, the doormen, office staff and so on.

But there was also Phil Henson, who was a coach there when I was there, and is now chief executive and John Breckin, who is the assistant coach.

There were also a few former players who are now involved in the youth set-up.

As I said things change pretty quickly in football, but I have to say not a lot has at Rotherham.

The dressing rooms are still pretty much the same, there's the same paint in the tunnel, although it has received a new coat. It all just took me back to when I played. It seemed like I had been there all that time.

Looking back, I think I may have stayed a year or two too long at the club. Having said that, my last three years were my best because I had developed a greater understanding of my game.

I knew my role within the team and what was expected of me and my standards were higher.

But I was hoping to have been away from Rotherham after three years. In the end, like I say, I was there for six.

My game plan after leaving Manchester United was to learn the English game, then from Rotherham move back up. I had hoped to get a place at what would now be a big First Division club and go from there but it didn't work out that way. A lot of it had to do with clauses in my contract. United were due to get some of the funds from any transfer in the form of a sell-on fee. Bigger clubs who sell young promising players insist on receiving a percentage of any fee they command down the line. That tends to keep a player at a club longer, until he is worth a higher fee. Rotherham, being small, only considered what they were going to get rather than the actual total amount. Then the Bosman ruling came in, which allowed out-of-contract players over the age of 24 to leave on a free transfer. That meant Rotherham faced the possibility of me walking out for nothing and so they decided to sell me.

I honestly believe that had the Bosman not come in I would have stayed there longer, maybe another year at least.

My reception from the fans on Saturday was neither one way nor the other. It wasn't good and it wasn't bad.

I was asked about the situation a few days before we played and I didn't know what kind of reaction I would get. I didn't really think about it again until after the game when a reporter said 'How did you feel about the reception?' and I said 'What reception?'

We ended up drawing 1-1 after going behind in the first-half. Ali Bernabia scored our equaliser and it meant we had taken one point from our last two games, having lost 2-1 to Stockport in midweek.

Some people may have seen those results and thought we had started to get the jitters with promotion to the Premiership being so close.

And I must admit the Stockport result looks bad on paper. But some people might not have taken into account that we had ten men for all of the second half and the last 15 minutes of the first following my sending off.

It just shows how far we have come when no matter who the team is people are expecting us to get a result, whether or not we have a full team on the pitch.

The Rotherham game was always going to be difficult because they are fighting for their lives down near the bottom.

Most seasons were like that when I was there. We had a few where we were in midtable and one or two when we were trying to get in the play-offs. But I remember two seasons where we were simply trying to avoid relegation.

On Saturday, their fans were passionate and wanted to run on the field if their players were not playing well and it got me thinking after the game. There may be pressure on us because we are at the top and so close to getting into the Premiership but compared to Rotherham we have the easier of the two situations. I'd rather have our pressure than be fighting for survival.

All we have to do is go out there, enjoy playing the way the gaffer wants us to play and try to win.

And we must seek to do just that when we take on Nottingham Forest at Maine Road on Saturday.