Plymouth Argyle's Carl Fletcher looking forward to seeing a familiar face

MANAGER Carl Fletcher will meet up with one his favourite former team-mates when Argyle take on Rotherham tomorrow.

One of the top performers for the Millers this season has been Iceland international Kari Arnason, who played for the Pilgrims for two seasons between 2009 and 2011.

Many of Arnason's 75 appearances for Argyle came as a centre-back, but he also lined up in midfield with Fletcher at times.

His departure from Home Park came at the height of the club's financial crisis.

Argyle's administrators effectively sacked Arnason for refusing to sign a deed of deferral over his wages for June 2011.

He had a trial at Hearts before signing for another Scottish Premier League club, Aberdeen, and went on to have a successful spell with them.

Arnason signed a two-year contract with Rotherham in the summer and has earned rave reviews for his performances, both in defence and, more lately, midfield.

Fletcher told Herald Sport: "I like Arnie. I liked him as a player. I thought he did well (for Argyle).

"He can play centre-half, midfield or you can even throw him up front if you wanted to.

"With everything that went on, it was a shame he had to leave but that's the decision he took for himself, which I think was only fair.

"At that stage, everyone had to look after themselves really.

"It will be good to see him again. I spoke to him a few times last season when he was at Aberdeen. Hopefully, we can keep him quiet tomorrow."

Fletcher always pays a lot of attention to detail, and that has included finding out the playing dimensions of the pitch at Rotherham's New York Stadium, which opened at the start of this season.

He said: "It's not big and it's not small – it's in between. It's about the same size as Cheltenham.

"A lot of people have said it's a really nice stadium and the pitch is good. We are looking forward to it.

"It's a new ground – somewhere we have not been to before – and I have pretty much been to everywhere else I think."

Rotherham, the pre-season title favourites, have won five of their seven home league games this season and are looking to mount a promotion push after a shaky start to the campaign.

Fletcher said: "In any away game you try to quieten the home crowd down.

"We see it ourselves when we play here (at Home Park). You want the fans behind you and if things aren't going well the noise goes down a little bit and everybody starts getting tense.

"You can use that to your advantage when you are playing away from home.

"It's important to try to get a good start and if you can quieten the crowd down and frustrate the home side you are setting a good foundation to go on and progress in the game."

Argyle were beaten 2-1 at Cheltenham on Tuesday, after winning their previous three matches, but Fletcher took a lot of positives out of their performance.

One of them was the way they retained possession of the ball for long periods, which has been a trait of recent matches.

More of the same will be required against Rotherham, who are sure to be strong and well-drilled, as all sides managed by Steve Evans are.

Fletcher said: "For the goal Conor (Hourihane) got at Cheltenham, I think there were nine passes before he scored and it started on the other side of the pitch.

"The second goal against Rochdale last Saturday (from Andres Gurrieri) came after 10 or 11 passes.

"It's not a case of us getting the ball and passing for the sake of it. We are passing with a purpose and creating something at the end of it."