Albion youngster Reuben Reid comes face to face with Rotherham tonight admitting he owes his career to the Millers.

The Baggies forward is expected to figure this evening as his old club visit The Hawthorns in the second round of the Carling Cup.

And the 21-year-old today admitted he owes a huge debt of gratitude to Millers manager Mark Robins for saving his career last summer.

Reid was without a club after his release by Championship Plymouth and was fearing for his career when he was offered a deal by the Yorkshire side.

But a year and 19 goals later, he is back at Championship level with the Baggies.

Reid said: “The manager there really gave me my breakthrough season in senior football and gave me a chance to play games and to show what I could do.

“He is one of the only managers who have really given me a chance in the game.

“I owe a lot of my success to him because he really gave me minutes on the pitch.“He trusted me enough to put me on the pitch and hopefully I repaid him with the goals I scored.

“I had a few loan moves when I was at Plymouth and when I went on loan as a young player I didn’t really get the opportunity to play as much as I would like.”

Reid joined the Millers with the club at the lowest point in their history with a 17-point deduction for entering administration leaving them in grave danger of dropping out of the football league.

But his goals were a key factor in their strong season under Robins, who guided them clear of the League Two relegation zone and had fans dreaming of a play-off place.

Reid moved on in the summer as Albion boss Roberto Di Matteo finally landed the forward he tried to sign for MK Dons.

But the former Plymouth trainee says he will always keep an eye on the fortunes of the club that gave him a chance to kick-start his career.

“There was a 17-point deduction when I went there and we were really up against it before a ball was kicked but we got the deficit back to zero quickly enough and we managed to push on,” said Reid.

“We were unfortunate that we missed out on the play-offs but without the deduction we would have been strong candidates for promotion.

“I am always going to be looking out for their results for the rest of my career.

“I am really hoping we knock them out tonight but after that I will be watching them closely and hoping they progress in the league.”

And Reid is ready to hand head coach Di Matteo a few tips on his former team-mates should the Italian seek his advice.

“If an ex-player faces a former club the manager will usually ask some questions and I will probably make a few sneaky phonecalls and try to find out what team they are going to pick or how they are going to set up,” he said.

“I will do what I can to help.

“I expect them to come at us and they will definitely be set up to be solid.

“I expect it to be a really tough game and they definitely won’t come here and be an easy pushover.”

Reid is likely to form part of a changed team to take on the Millers with boss Di Matteo expected to keep faith with some or all of the men who got his side through the first-round tie at Bury.

That could mean Craig Beattie and Simon Cox again joining forces in attack while Graham Dorrans is expected to return from suspension in midfield.

The Millers are expected to be without captain and key defender Ian Sharps through injury while striker Adam Le Fondre is also a doubt.