Grim up North Vs Rotherham (League 2)

Ok , lets have a show of hands. Who is disappointed that we only started with one left back and one right back?

Oh, right then.

It's quite a long way to Rotherham. Almost as far as it is to Sheffield, which is where Rotherham play. In an athletics stadium rather than a football ground. An athletics stadium that they only use one side of.

As footballing experiences go, it's pants. Us yellows ended up sitting high up in one corner, with a load of empty seats, some concrete, an eight lane running track and a bit of grass in between us and the pitch. I joked to someone as I sat down that I should have brought binoculars. Once the teams ran out, that little quip was ringing a bit hollow. It was hard enough to read the numbers on the back on the players shirts, never mind trying to identify which player was doing what at certain times. The only stand to be used is along the side of the pitch, so no fans behind either goal. I promise never to moan about the lack of atmosphere in the Kassam again. The Don Valley Stadium made our little three sided lovenest look and sound like Rio on carnival day. It was really difficult to get hugely involved in the game - it was like watching ants running around on a picnic blanket; our paticular ants were for some reason wearing the blue away kit, when we could have worn the not-quite-as-blue home kit and not clashed - I am starting to really get fed us with us not wearing yellow.

The match. Well our three new boys started with Beano on the bench. Worley partnered Futcher in central defence, with Tonkin (somehow) and Purkiss preferred to Kinni and Batt. Wotton had Clist and Payne for company, while Mclean was in a front three (sometimes) along with Alfie and TC. We started quite well, and pushed the Millers back for the first half of the first half. We were then undone by a nasty deflection that fell to (of all people) Le Fondre. Who accepted his slice of luck gratefully. There looked to be a suspicion of offside - but being 50 yards above and half a mile away from the action it's hard to tell. We then started flapping a bit, and looked fairly deflated. It wasn't a real surprise when Rotherham scored another- even though it was only their second shot on target. Le Fondre again. 16 goals already this season. I'm amazed the bloke is still playing for this team in this division. There are three possibilities.

1) He has no ambition
2) They are paying him a huge amount of money
3) They've got hold of some photos he doesn't want the world to see!

Whatever. Oddly enough the goal sparked us into life, and we went close(ish) a couple of times before just about all of our outfield players had a go until Clist managed to get the ball in the net. That was a great relief as it had been just let's say 'some time' since we had last scored.

Half time came with us on top. We were unlucky to be down after a much better perfomance than recently. More about that later.

With the Rotherham Millerette cheerleaders stirring the crowd into a frenzy and the mini-football on the pitch between two unidentified teams of eight year olds hacking the ball about an unmissable spectacle, half time just flew by. Honest.

It got colder. The second half passed with Heslop coming on for Payne, Green for Potter and Beano for Craddock. We set up a couple of decent efforts just outside the box (row z shooting), Wotton had a good shot well saved. Our defence gave the ball away in dangerous situations, and as we got more desperate, the ball went in the air more. Rotherham kept coming forward - they had to as their defence didn't look as if it was made for shutting up shop. I honestly thought we might get something out of the game as the second half started, but it was not to be, and the final whistle went just before my feet actually froze to the concrete. Which was nice.

So, overall? Better. Despite not marking Le Fondre a couple of times (doh!), the defence looked a little more solid. Jake will be back on Saturday next, so that should help. I'd like to mention one glorious cross that Tonks put in later in the second half - credit where it's due. The midfield were more combative, actually tackling a few times - the forwards helped here as well, doing their tackling back duties fairly well. The strikers looked a bit more threatening - although the official stats seem to say that we had two shots on goal, that simply isn't correct. I can remember three. But probably a bit better than the one shot we managed against Burton. Treble it again on Satuday and that will be acceptable.

There's a lot to work on in training though. The corners and free kicks were generally laughable still. One amazing free kick we managed to stub five yards to the nearest (far too close) Rotherham player who then galloped straight towards our goal with all our players (who had been standing in their penalty area) running about like the Anthill Mob they looked like. We gave the ball away time after time when under no pressure, and seemed to think that the ball over the top was the one that was going to catch Rotherham out. It never vaguely looked like working.

Rotherham have one good player (they gave the MOM award to someone else though - I mean it must just get embarassing giving it to the same player week after week!) and one tactic. Pass the ball on the floor past the opposition defence for him to run on to. I do wonder if we ought to adopt a similar strategy - have a simple plan that all the players can understand. At times our players were treating the ball like a hot potato, trying to get rid of it as soon as possible - usually straight back to the poor bugger who'd given it to them and was now marked by two men.

If you're wondering why I haven't commented in detail on how the new boys did, it's because I couldn't see which ones they were! That will have to wait until the home match against Gillingham next week, which is now looking just a little bit important. Don't Panic Captain Mainwaring!