Rotherham away match thread

[pj76]

5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I got bollocked by daughter and wife for my outbursts tonight.  I even watched in the kitchen, but that wasn’t far enough out if their way.  Wasn’t just the ref I aimed a few at either.

Yeah same vibes here. I had the headphones on and was watching on the iPad whilst the wife caught up on the bake off. Suffice to say I got a telling off by the wife for my language used on three occasions:

a. Questioning referee's parentage, personal habits and comparing him to various parts of the anatomy after he ignored the WWE takedown of Sam Bell. in my defence comments referred to both male and female body parts, so gender equality was noted

b. Somewhat strongly espousing a view of the players and people connected to the town of Rotherham, implying that they were vaguely subhuman, of a restricted gene pool and troglodytic.

c. Questioning quite forcefully our invitation to Blackett to take as much time and space as he needed, maybe have a cup of tea and some cake, sit on our picnic rug (also known as the penalty box), before gently nudging it into the net whilst our keeper falls over backwards to provide some icing on his slice of Battenburg.

[Lew-T]

That ‘foul’ that Sam Bell got accused of in the second half was shambolic.

[TV Tom]

8 hours ago, redkev said:

We all know we were poor , but only Leicester have beat them at home all season and we all know Leicester are gonna be champions , sometimes you play teams that just don’t suit you or your style - ask joe Joyce about playing someone who don’t suit your style

True, i witnessed truly awful games at Reading, Cardiff, Swansea & Brum' last season where these teams just didn't suit our style of play 

[mozo]

6 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

That was a nice win.

Saw on highlights, one if not two dodgy penalties.

Us generally playing the better but without much reward.

Late on- at a ground we don't have a great record at in recent times. Sure we would have been favourites tonight but the nature of the win and the scorer that's a great boost.

This is all true, but listen to Nige. We were awful. It just so happens that Rotherham were ever so slightly more awful, and the officials were also awful. It was an awful game, with the exception of two sublime finishes.

[TV Tom]

8 hours ago, bcfcnick said:

Two world class finishes by Tommy. I wouldn't start him against Leeds simply because he's just come back from a long injury and we can't afford to lose him. Bring him on fresh early in the second half against tiring defenders.  I bet on him to be the highest scorer in the Championship before his injury and I still wouldn't count him out.

Same here, i thought my £10 EW at 66s was dead in the water  

[TV Tom]

7 hours ago, Davefevs said:

He had a decent game, but 65+ mins is a good time to introduce Wells against a tiring defence.

I know I’m posting this after the event, but I thought we were better second half, had started to move the ball around a bit better / quicker (low bar 1st half) and needed fresh legs / sharp movement to hopefully take advantage.

Subs aren’t always reflective of performance, just about getting fresh legs / finishers on in key positions.

Serious question, how do you come to the conclusion that he had a "decent game" i thought they were all miles away from having a decent game bar Dickie, we certainly did improve in the second half particularly when the subs came on.

[TV Tom]

8 hours ago, cidercity1987 said:

Three decisions in a row in the second half all completing farcical

City cross, clear Rotherham header out of play. Gave as their throw.

Another City cross, their defender clatters their goalie with our players nowhere in sight. Free kick

Up the other end , Rotherham kick out of play right in front of the linesman. Corner

That is the trivial stuff that is so embarrassing bad let alone the clear penalty we should have had. Even worse and something to put into context that it's the same ref from the invented result away at Hull last season. Where yet again he failed to us give us penalties for similar holding offences and gave Hull a penalty for an obvious dive

That summed this awful ref up, Bell's face was a picture, he wasn't within 5 yards of them, even the Sky commentators were dumb-founded    

[mozo]

1 minute ago, TV Tom said:

Serious question, how do you come to the conclusion that he had a "decent game" i thought they were all miles away from having a decent game bar Dickie, we certainly did improve in the second half particularly when the subs came on.

I would agree with you.

Dickey had a decent game. Cornick had a few good moments in the first half.

Max's only mistake was to be weak on the goal.

Everyone else (starting) made numerous unforced errors and definitely didn't raise their games so significantly to be upgraded to anything better than 4/10.

They're capable of so much better but as Nige said we didn't play with any self belief.

[TV Tom]

8 minutes ago, mozo said:

I would agree with you.

Dickey had a decent game. Cornick had a few good moments in the first half.

Max's only mistake was to be weak on the goal.

Everyone else (starting) made numerous unforced errors and definitely didn't raise their games so significantly to be upgraded to anything better than 4/10.

They're capable of so much better but as Nige said we didn't play with any self belief.

We had too many of these sorts of away performances last season against "average" sides, hopefully this was a one-off as in general our away form has been excellent so far this season 

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, mozo said:

This is all true, but listen to Nige. We were awful. It just so happens that Rotherham were ever so slightly more awful, and the officials were also awful. It was an awful game, with the exception of two sublime finishes.

That’s the Championship.  There are lots of games like that across a season for all clubs.

2 hours ago, TV Tom said:

Serious question, how do you come to the conclusion that he had a "decent game" i thought they were all miles away from having a decent game bar Dickie, we certainly did improve in the second half particularly when the subs came on.

Because he did, was the only one of the from 6 first hour who really did anything, with hardly any service.  He did well with ball into feet, dribbled away from Blackett 3 or 4 teams, and fed the wide players. Won a few headers too.

What did he do badly?  It’s easy to just say he’s crap without backing it up.

I suspect you’ve made your mind up about Cornick.  If you read back, several posters thought Cornick played well, and / or didn’t deserve to be subbed.  On the sub, I had no issues, we needed fresh legs, not all subs are performance related, there is now the concept of starters and finishers.

[TV Tom]

11 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

That’s the Championship.  There are lots of games like that across a season for all clubs.

Because he did, was the only one of the from 6 first hour who really did anything, with hardly any service.  He did well with ball into feet, dribbled away from Blackett 3 or 4 teams, and fed the wide players. Won a few headers too.

What did he do badly?  It’s easy to just say he’s crap without backing it up.

I suspect you’ve made your mind up about Cornick.  If you read back, several posters thought Cornick played well, and / or didn’t deserve to be subbed.  On the sub, I had no issues, we needed fresh legs, not all subs are performance related, there is now the concept of starters and finishers.

Who said he was crap ? and you suspect wrong, i haven't made my mind up about Cornick i just felt that along with the majority of the team he didn't have a particularly good game, you think he had a decent game and i thought he didn't have a particularly good game, we're not too far apart

[Offside]

Just seen the highlights. What brilliant finishes from Conway. A very welcome 3 points from what sounds like a poor game. 

Awful decisions by the officials to not give penalties when our players were wrestled to the ground. 

[MarcusX]

12 hours ago, redkev said:

Don’t know what you could see being there but on tv the referee was shocking 2-deffo pens 

oh enjoy the A1 shouldn’t be so bad this time of night even though lots of road works at night 

 

Couldn’t see a thing of the first half incidents but on the highlights the bell one looks clear cut 

[MarcusX]

12 hours ago, cidercity1987 said:

Not for Saturday but I believe Conway can replace Williams in the team and push Knight back alongside James

Why would you want to move Knight who’s been probably our best player so far this season?

[mozo]

59 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

That’s the Championship.  There are lots of games like that across a season for all clubs.

That may be so but I think we'll find that Sheffield Wednesday will collectively underperform more often than Leicester City.

If we've managed to take the points in a freak game then that's fine, so long as we raise those levels higher for Leeds and the majority of games going forwards. Nige reflected on the win by saying "we're not kidding ourselves", ie not going to brush the performance under the carpet. 

[redkev]

12 hours ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

Saw the highlights, and thank god for TC but I've got no regrets. 

Understand what your saying , but sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and get through it - 

bit like marriage

[MarcusX]

3 hours ago, mozo said:

I would agree with you.

Dickey had a decent game. Cornick had a few good moments in the first half.

Max's only mistake was to be weak on the goal.

Everyone else (starting) made numerous unforced errors and definitely didn't raise their games so significantly to be upgraded to anything better than 4/10.

They're capable of so much better but as Nige said we didn't play with any self belief.

In the cold light of the next morning, I’d largely write this one off as “there’s another team on the pitch”.

They were shit, ugly, physical, long ball and they crowded out the midfield. They truly stunk out the game in my opinion and it stifled us first half.

Sometimes it’s hard to implement change mid game and we just needed to get to half time and sort ourselves out, which largely we did.

Second half was much better and we were able to move the ball quicker and pull them about. Taking hugill off was a big changing point for me, they lost their target and didn’t really rhreaten then other than the goal.

I can’t say we really looked like winning it, but after half time I was never worried we’d lose it.

I thought Dickie was decent, Naismith had a tough night and the ref gave him nothing at all.

No one really stood out as having a great game, but sometimes you have to win ugly.

[TV Tom]

7 minutes ago, mozo said:

That may be so but I think we'll find that Sheffield Wednesday will collectively underperform more often than Leicester City.

If we've managed to take the points in a freak game then that's fine, so long as we raise those levels higher for Leeds and the majority of games going forwards. Nige reflected on the win by saying "we're not kidding ourselves", ie not going to brush the performance under the carpet. 

This is exactly it, the top teams rarely have an off day (performance wise not result wise) on our day we are a good team but it's all about doing it on a consistent basis which we have failed to do for many seasons. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, TV Tom said:

Who said he was crap ? and you suspect wrong, i haven't made my mind up about Cornick i just felt that along with the majority of the team he didn't have a particularly good game, you think he had a decent game and i thought he didn't have a particularly good game, we're not too far apart

Ok, but you said everyone other than Dickie was miles away….

in numerical terms I thought he was 6 / 6.5 out of 10 against a front 6 of 4s and 5s.  6 / 6.5 is my definition of a woolly term “decent”!

4 minutes ago, TV Tom said:

This is exactly it, the top teams rarely have an off day (performance wise not result wise) on our day we are a good team but it's all about doing it on a consistent basis which we have failed to do for many seasons. 

I guess that’s why they are the top teams, with top players.

We are an average(ish) ability squad in the main, trying to make the best out of the “sum of the parts”.  It’s not a 11 minute OTT view, but Conway is our only true top-top quality player.  He will hopefully help those slightly under par performances as a team pick up points where we might not deserve.

Within the squad we have other key players, I think James, Knight and Naismith fall into that, but James doesn’t win you games, nor Knight unless he perhaps starts chipping in with goals and neither does Naismith unless it’s goal saving challenges.

The rest are much of a muchness.

I’m happy with that btw.

In this league City normally have to play well to win, last night was nice to win being under par.

[TV Tom]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

Ok, but you said everyone other than Dickie was miles away….

in numerical terms I thought he was 6 / 6.5 out of 10 against a front 6 of 4s and 5s.  6 / 6.5 is my definition of a woolly term “decent”!

I guess that’s why they are the top teams, with top players.

We are an average(ish) ability squad in the main, trying to make the best out of the “sum of the parts”.  It’s not a 11 minute OTT view, but Conway is our only true top-top quality player.  He will hopefully help those slightly under par performances as a team pick up points where we might not deserve.

Within the squad we have other key players, I think James, Knight and Naismith fall into that, but James doesn’t win you games, nor Knight unless he perhaps starts chipping in with goals and neither does Naismith unless it’s goal saving challenges.

The rest are much of a muchness.

I’m happy with that btw.

In this league City normally have to play well to win, last night was nice to win being under par.

We got away with last night because Rotherham were rank, they scored with their only shot on target in two games, we played equally as bad last season away against teams slightly better than Rotherham and got beat, Cardiff, Swansea, Brum, Reading spring to mind, tbf i thought we weren't too bad in the second half although not creating much, the subs certainly made a massive difference against a tiring defence

[Gimme Shelton]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

That’s the Championship.  There are lots of games like that across a season for all clubs.

Because he did, was the only one of the from 6 first hour who really did anything, with hardly any service.  He did well with ball into feet, dribbled away from Blackett 3 or 4 teams, and fed the wide players. Won a few headers too.

What did he do badly?  It’s easy to just say he’s crap without backing it up.

I suspect you’ve made your mind up about Cornick.  If you read back, several posters thought Cornick played well, and / or didn’t deserve to be subbed.  On the sub, I had no issues, we needed fresh legs, not all subs are performance related, there is now the concept of starters and finishers.

Just watched back this morning, Cornick I thought had a good game,pulled their centre halves all over the place and left space in behind which we couldn't exploit. The longer the game went on there was only one team in it,just a question of if we could score, enter Tommy...

[Mr Popodopolous]

I still think Warne would have got more out of Rotherham squad than Taylor but who knows.

As for last night, isn't it vintage Bristol City that Blackett probably age somewhere between 25-30 scores his first ever English League goal against us with their only shot on target.

[The Gasbuster]

11 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I still think Warne would have got more out of Rotherham squad than Taylor but who knows.

As for last night, isn't it vintage Bristol City that Blackett probably age somewhere between 25-30 scores his first ever English League goal against us with their only shot on target.

Agree with this. Warne made a habit of getting Rotherham to "bounce back" after relegation.

Can't really see Taylor doing this; assuming he lasts the season (?), and I have Rotherham as relegation certs.

[Mr Popodopolous]

15 minutes ago, The Gasbuster said:

Agree with this. Warne made a habit of getting Rotherham to "bounce back" after relegation.

Can't really see Taylor doing this; assuming he lasts the season (?), and I have Rotherham as relegation certs.

He has been backed a lot more financially too relative to Warne. Check the signings Rotherham made in summer 2022 and then January 2023 and summer 2023.

The general activity..and despite a softish start fixture wise, Rotherham were flying when Warne left, 14 pts 8 games or something...quite positive at home too. He had to make do with players like Peltier, Kioso, Brammall, Eaves, Washington..losing key players baxk to League One.

Come January although Barlaser left, in came Morrison, Wright, Hjelde, Blackett, Coventry, Fosu, Hugill.. 

[Ian M]

14 hours ago, cityal said:

Another angle of the Bell penalty incident

Clear handball from Bell, ref may have got this one right after all.

14 hours ago, mozo said:

I'd go 30 minutes on Saturday. We'll need his quality.

By the way, another International break?! Ffs 

....but another 2 weeks closer to Big Rob returning 

6 hours ago, mozo said:

I would agree with you.

Dickey had a decent game. Cornick had a few good moments in the first half.

Max's only mistake was to be weak on the goal.

Everyone else (starting) made numerous unforced errors and definitely didn't raise their games so significantly to be upgraded to anything better than 4/10.

They're capable of so much better but as Nige said we didn't play with any self belief.

Was just Rotherham being Rotherham and dragging their opponent down to their level. On their budget (must be the smallest in the Championship) they are very unlikely to have goals much above staying in the division so it's in their interests to turn home games into scrappy affairs which they often succeed at as evidenced from 1 defeat in 4 (Leicester) before our visit. Last season 2/3 of their opponents failed to win there. 

After Stoke anything less than a win would have felt deflating as a gap would be growing between us and the hope of a play-off spot. As it is, having missed Tommy for most of the season we currently sit 1 point off and can continue to hope.

[redsquirrel]

ive watched it over and over,why did max go backwards falling over? if he stayed upright he could have at least blocked the shot,he sees it late granted but i just cant fathom how he ended up like he did?

[Mr Popodopolous]

I'll defend Rotherham a little.

This time a year ago or August, September at least under Warne.

1-1 v Swansea

4-0 v Reading

2-0 v Birmingham

1-1 v Watford

3-0 v Blackpool

All at home but that is quite positive, attack minded. Some decent underlying stats too in a few of them.

[22A]

https://boards.footymad.net/showthread.php?t=38310994

They were there for the taking. Worst team we've had down here by some margin. Trouble is we were worse tonight so fair play to them.

Only one shot on goal 86min & score yet M/T keeps Hugill & Green on till the 80thmin both poor.I don’t think Bristol were a good side but with our very poor forwards they had nothing to fear.These last few performances have relegation written all over them.

Well I feel genuinely gutted for the players tonight. There was effort and application and no little skill. A draw would have been a just reward, injuries in the last few minutes killed us.
A workmanlike,if dull Bristol played the perfect away game. Sadly it is the sort of side you have to beat to stay up.

[Mr Popodopolous]

Common knowledge to us of course but found it on their pre match thread- nice to see if getting a mention though.

[Sleepy1968]

14 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I got bollocked by daughter and wife for my outbursts tonight.  I even watched in the kitchen, but that wasn’t far enough out if their way.  Wasn’t just the ref I aimed a few at either.

You might have to wifi up the dog house just in case we play like that again.