“I was gutted, to be honest, I thought a page had turned really. Steve came in last April and started me in matches. I'm very grateful to him for that.” Eaves told the ADvertiser
“The general vibe I got was that there will be more minutes on the pitch with Northampton,” he said. “It will be good for my family to watch me playing again.
“I didn't know what the future held for me at Rotherham in regards to playing. There were a lot of strikers at the club who were similar in their styles. I'm all for competition but sometimes there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
“I just thought: ‘You know what, it's better to go and find new pastures.’ It kills me to say that because I felt that things were just starting to go well for me here.”
“My biggest disappointment was not getting the chance to work properly with Paul Warne,” he reflected. “I did my calf in the first week, which didn't help at all.
“I look back now and think I would probably have been a starter that season and would have got a goal or two in those first few games. That would have changed everything and we might be having a different conversation now.
“But that's life; I'm not here to grumble about it. I'm just disappointed I didn't get the chance to play under the manager who brought me in.
“The two managers after that, I wasn't their player. And I never felt like their player, ever. I was coming on with just a few minutes to go when we were behind and chasing a game. You're getting judged on that as well and it's difficult to be effective in those circumstances.
“To be fair, when Leam Richardson came in it was a breath of fresh air for me. Under Matt Taylor, it was a bad time for me really.”
Northampton made their move soon after the Millers had settled into their base on the east coast north of the border and the switch was completed in around 48 hours.
“It happened in the space of a couple of days,” the 6ft 5in striker said. “It was incredibly quick. I was in St Andrews and I got a call from my agent saying: ‘Look, we've had interest.’
"It was a longer-term deal, which was appealing, and they said I'd be playing week in, week out. That was even more appealing. Financially, it was something I couldn't turn down as well, especially being 32.
“Age is not something I really look at, though. I feel great and, to be honest, I've not played a great deal of football over the last two years so I'm feeling fresh.
“I had no inkling when I went up on the train to Scotland that I would be leaving Rotherham.
“The package was agreed and I just needed the okay from the manager. To be fair to Steve, he was really good with me. He just let me go because he understood what the financial security and chance to be a regular starter meant to me.”