Stung by the Bees

Rotherham v Brentford, New York Stadium, Saturday 30th August 2014

Two days to go till the end of the transfer window and no more action at the New York. Maybe we will have to make do with the 14 new faces that have come in so far. The next game of the season saw newly promoted (with us) Brentford in town, a game that looked like a good chance for a win. The past week had seen the national press camped out in Rotherham after a shocking report detailing the years of grooming that had gone on in the town and the failure of the council and police to do anything about it. We were expecting lots of references to this from the opposing fans. 

The morning began with a tearful goodbye. Ian and I took my Honda to a second hand car dealer after nine wonderful years, consequently getting rid of the wonderful Millers spare tyre cover that Vicky once got me for my birthday.

While driving through Sheffield we spotted three magpies. Three for a girl, who would score? Kari Arneson or Lee Frecklington we decided. 2-0 to do us then. 

Around lunchtime Chris rushed downstairs to beg his dad to pour a bucket of ice on his head. 'If I must' Ian grinned, leaping up and rushing for the ice maker. 'Dont bother nominating me' I told him 'cos I will just ignore it'. His southern softy sister got the vote.

Back inside Nottingham Forest scored in the live TV game vs Sheffield Weds, a good day all round so far.

We took our now customary stroll down to the New York Tavern, Ian wearing his hat, the one that he couldn't find for our game v Wolves, when we won. We spotted Wooly, James and Dave and had a beer with them, while Dave regaled us with a story about an old guy trying to get through the turnstyles at the last game. He held up the queue while he tried it upside down and back to front before realising he was trying last years card! Talk on the way to the game turned morbid, with lots of stories regarding doctors, hospitals, and how they had failed people's relatives in increasingly worrying ways. The moral appeared to be never get ill in Rotherham. We passed in front of the police station where a group of EDL supporters had set up tents in order to protest about the grooming scandal, no shortage of police were employed in supervising them. 

Inside the concourse.

Once in the ground we noticed that above and behind us we have a brand spanking new Electronic Scoreboard. We are on the up!

The old guy on the end was on time but the twitchers arrived a little late. There is no excuse for that.

The lady twitcher did have a good story about going to a wedding reception at the training ground and witnessing Steve Evans ice bucket challenge. 

We set off quite well although the atmosphere was a bit flat with the 600 Brentford fans making the most noise.

After about 15mins I noticed a big problem. One of their players had The Bandage. As any football fan knows, any team with The Bandage always wins. Our only hope was that it was a hand bandage, which Vicky argued is not the same as The Head Bandage. I am not so sure. 

Not actual game footage.

Paul Taylor, on loan from Ipswich, was once again instrumental in all we did, ending up taking a shot which cannoned off the bar. It was a pretty even game with the ref letting everything, and I mean everything, go. Ian was up out of his seat screaming at one of their players who he think dived, and at the ref to BOOK HIM!!!, although I'm not so sure. Then, just before half time, disaster, they broke away quickly, beat the off side trap (Ian thinks he was off side) and bent a lovely shot round Adam Colin into the top corner. 1-0 to them at half time. 

We turned to look up during the interval to see a giant Jeff Stelling beaming down at us. The new scoreboard had the rolling results service on at half time. As they would say in New Zealand, 'Awesome'. Vicky and I discussed the fact that us having an international break had seemed exciting at first, but now it had arrived, two weeks without football was very annoying. We also remembered, fondly, scary grandad, one of our compatriots in block 6 upper at the Don Valley Stadium. He would never stand up if someone wanted to get past and we never saw him smile, until the day scary grandma came along with him. He had the biggest smile, baring the hugest, whitest set of false teeth ever. Happy days! 'Is he still alive in the East stand' we wondered. The half time guest was Des Hazel, a striker from the late eighties who was christened, along with Paul Haycock, as one of 'The Dangerous Brothers'. Mainly because they were not at all dangerous to opposition defences. 

As it happens, we appear to have some dangerous brothers at the moment. Alex Revell was withdrawn after about 60mins and Matt Derbyshire and Jordan Bowery found it very difficult. One of their players went down kicking his leg after 78mins with no-one near him. The ref quickly stopped the game and, to our chants of 'you're just a soft southern b*****', a stretcher came on and he was carried off. The Brentford fans had been very classy up to then, but now the expected chant of 'you're just a town full of paedos' rang out. A lot later than we thought. No chance of that when weds and Leeds come to town.

Our Ben takes a corner

 We became more and more frustrated and desperate, until after 90+7 they broke away and scored again to seal the win. Very few fans were left as the final whistle blew. 

There were many reasons for our defeat, the main one being Ian's hat. He is no longer allowed to wear it for home games. Also, the turnstyle. We need to enter via turnstyles 11 and 12 next match. And clearly we can never beat teams who's nickname is an insect. Hopefully there aren't any more in our division.

Next up the long trip to the southern softy enclave of Bournemouth. We will be there so watch this space

Final score Rotherham 0 Brentford 2 

Attendence 9016

Men of the match

Ian - Taylor

Jackie - Taylor

Vicky - Taylor

Ian's award - not booking the player for diving

Funniest moment - recollections of scary grandad.

Ps TV highlights showed their player was onside for the first goal. 

Pps Andre and Nick scored their goals (Andrea and Nicky?)

Bafetimbi

LSwansea v Rotherham, league cup round 2, The Liberty Stadium, tues 26th Aug 2014

The dodgy penalty in injury time against Fleetwood in round one earned us a second round tie at Swansea, probably one of the furthest stadiums from Rotherham you can get. Because they are doing so well we expected nothing from the game, especially as Steve Evans had made a host of changes in order to rest some of the players. The fans favourites Ben Pringle and Alex Revell were both in the starting lineup however.  Due to the distance and work there was no way we would be travelling, so once again we watched the Sky rolling results service. On evenings when the games don't matter much Geoff is given the night off and the anchor is a young man called Julian Warren. The expert summarisers are also the reserves, with not as much personality as the usual four. Despite Swansea being in second place in the premier league our game still did not rate a summariser of our own, just a person to let us know when a goal is scored or anything else exciting happened, who happened to be Kevin Watson, an ex player of ours. 

The first exciting thing that Kevin had to tell us was that the match was delayed for 'Box Office reasons'. 'What does that mean, Kevin?' Asked young Julian. 'So many people have unexpectedly turned up without tickets that they ran out, and the queue stretched around the block while they waited for more.' Kevin told us. That's the pulling power of Rotherham United. 

A few minutes later and Julian asked 'Kevin, have the Swansea fans got the goal they wanted?' 'Yes they have' said Kevin. Bafetimbi Gomeis had scored for Swansea after a sustained period of pressure. 

Over an hour and no goals later Julian crossed once more to the Liberty stadium. 'Are Rotherham pressing Kevin?'. 'No.' Was Kevin's succinct reply.

90 seconds after that the final score scrolled across the screen. Swansea 1 Rotherham 0.

So our great cup adventure that had taken in Fleetwood and Swansea was at an end. No chance now of a glamour tie against Manchester United in the next round, not least because they had been beaten 4-0 by MK Dons! Thank god we didn't manage to make the long trip to Swansea. 

Man of the match - Kevin Watson. It was him or Julian and Julian is lacking in personality.

No one likes them, they don't care!

Millwall v Rotherham, The Cellar and Rother Valley,  23rd August 2014

Due to the distance and the opposition fans propensity for beating the opposing fans heads in we decided that we wouldn't be making the trip to the New Den, but would be watching Geoff and the boys on the rolling results service. The day started very poorly with Ian accidentally switching on Radio Sheffield in the car, (superstition dictates that we NEVER listen to Radio Sheffield pre match) and then seeing a single magpie strutting down the lane (obviously we both saluted and greeted it but it's a lottery whether that works or not). Ian then decided to spread the bad luck around a bit. He walked Corrie down to Tesco to get the paper, but made sure to kick her out first in the hopes she would do her business. Of course she waited till she got just outside the entrance to the Carlton Park before spreading a steaming pile right across the road. Unfortunately for Gillingham fans their team were just boarding the bus to travel up to Barnsley. See later for updates on that. 

Come 3pm I was ensconced down the cellar with the ironing and Geoff ready to face the next nerve racking 90mins. Now we are a championship club our scoreline keeps popping up at the side of the screen, and we have a roving reporter at our game. We are playing with the big boys now! 

Watching the rolling results service is like riding a roller coaster, lots of ups and downs, not just involving your team. The first half went something like this.

Weds score early on - Down

Barnsley score against Gillingham - Ian's fault

Brentford full back sent off -Up (we play brentford on Sat)

Barnsley score again against Gillingham -  Dog poo must be really bad luck

Port vale are losing - Up (really hate Port Vale due to Tom Pope, who used to play for us but now always scores against us, but feel sorry for Michael O'Connor who also used to play for us and I liked)

Matt Tubbs scores - Astonshment, he was rubbish when he played for us

Blackpool are losing - Up, At least someone will be below us come the end of the season

Weds are 2-0 up - Down

Alex Revell misses an open goal from six yards out  - Very very down

Half time arrives at 0-0, sigh of relief

Just as half time arrived we got a phone call saying that Susan and family wanted to go to Rotherham Valley to walk the dogs, so I abandoned the ironing and we piled in the car, Geoff would have to fend for himself. 

Half way up Gulthwaite Hill my phone buzzed in my pocket, I pulled it out to see a score alert, 

GOAL!! B Pringle (49) Millwall 0-1 Rotherham

Woo hoo!! Seemed like Bens wand of a left foot had done it again, another Crisp finish (boom,boom).

We arrived at Rother Valley and spent the rest of the half wandering around the lake dreading a Millwall equaliser.

The other results started to come in but our result was late due to an injury to Joe Scarz, he was punched in the head by his own goalkeeper. Finally, at nearly 5 o'clock, the sky app showed the result, 1-0 to Rotherham. 

Our first away win of the season and we were up to 14th in the table. Further investigation showed that Pringle actually put the ball in with his right foot. Amazing, he can use it for something other than standing. The word on the web was 'Kieran who?'. I assume his huge wage increase was compensation for warming the Bristol bench. Who cares anyway. 

Final score - Millwall 0 Rotherham 1

Men of the match 

The 400 Rotherham fans who braved the new den

Quote of the day

'Now Run!' One Millers fans advice on FaceBook to the fans who braved the New Den.

Funniest moment

The text alert of the goal coming to my phone first and me not telling Vicky what it is. 

Ps Barnsley beat Gillingham 4-1, but Weds won 2-3

Stung By The Hornets

Rotherham United v Watford, New York Stadium, Tuesday 19th August  2014

Hot on the heels of the Wolves game the Millers were in action again in a Tues night game against the Hornets of Watford. Tues night games are all about logistics. In from work at 7pm, gobble tea down and back out the door at 7.15. Once again Chris let us down resulting in us having to take the car, this time avoiding the dodgy Wellgate car park in favour of the even dodgier area round the back of Ian's old office. Approaching Don Street we spotted a woman selling the book, Reliving The Dream, for which Vicky had brought ten pounds. She brought out her money and the lady said 'do you want it signed?' And passed it to the man standing next to her, who seemed to be the author, Jonathon Veal. You don't get that everyday. We arrived at the ground in plenty of time, with around 10 mins to go till kick off to find an enormous queue. Curse these Millers fans who expect to arrive 2mins before kick off and get straight in! After much discussion we decided on turnstyle 10, bad choice as you will find out. We won't be using that one again, although we were able to get in in time. Wooly and James were already in situ, even though they have to travel from Hull. Also already seated was old guy on the end. I nodded to him and he nodded back. Small steps. 

The team was announced and, surprisingly, there was no Kieran 'I want away but no one will pay me enough money' Agard. The word was that he was in talks with Wolves. He obviously hitched a lift on their team bus on Saturday. Someone on the row in front is going to have to buy a new shirt.

The good news was that Ritchie Smallwood, scorer of the winning penalty in last seasons play off final had resigned, on loan, just before the game, and was in the starting eleven. As kick off approached it became apparent that one of the twitchers was missing, although Ian Mark 2 was there, and the woman. The bad news was that the fat woman in front had been replaced by a thin man, so that is clearly not her season ticket seat and all my hopes of her shielding me from the worst of the winter weather were dashed. 

The players took to the field, New York New York was played, legs were kicked and the referee, Mr Webb (no not that one) blew his whistle. We were off. 

The first half was a treat for Millers fans, we passed the ball about superbly, just falling down in the final third. The Watford players tried to combat this by throwing themselves to the floor at every opportunity, especially the number 19, much to our fans disgust. They seem to be a team of just Italians, with all the histrionics you would expect, and Mr Webb fell for it every time. Queue Boos, swearing and name calling from Ian, Wooly, and Ian Mark 2 (hereafter known simply as 2). 'Green is giving the ball away a lot' said Ian. 'Greens passing is a little off' said 2. Unfortunatly, we did not capatilise on our superiority, and half time arrived at 0-0. 

The second half began and Watford slowly came more and more into the game. We had few chances, mostly just from free kicks around the area. One of them saw Pringle try to curl it in when the wall appeared to be about five yards away, we need that vanishing spray NOW. A very strong tackle in the centr of the park saw Green leave the field, much to his disgust as he slammed his boot to the floor. Turns out he had a nasty injury.

You could feel it coming, and sure enough a move down the left saw Watford score. We pressed for the equaliser and Watford broke and scored again. There fans were ecstatic, ours despondent. Last season we would have thought nothing of being 2-0 down with five minutes to play, but against a good Watford side it was a bridge too far. Mr Webb brought the game to an end and, despite the scoreline, applause rang around the stadium. We had put on a good show, especially in the first half, and it bodes well for the rest of the season. 

We trudged back to the car, heads down, only to find that there is no longer a light in the alley beside Ian's office, and a strange man was following us in the darkness. A little spooky.

Final score Millers 0 Watford 2

Men of the match

Jackie-Paul Taylor

Ian-Ritchie Smallwood

Vicky-Ritchie Smallwood

Ian's award

Constant pandering to number 19

Funniest moment

There are no funny moments when we lose

Ps Latest news is that Agard has travelled to Bristol as we have agreed terms with City and he is discussin personal terms. 

Pps We will not be travelling to Millwall on Sat so the blog will be brought to you from an armchair via the torture that is the Sky rolling results service

Keeping the Wolves at bay

Rotherham United v Wolves, New York Stadium, Saturday 16th August 2014

Saturday again and the first home game of the championship season had arrived. The morning started with a little light relief from the intense nervousness with an episode that began with my App Store on my i-pad thinking I was in the USA. I tried turning it off and back on then, when that failed, looked on the internet and followed some long winded instructions. The little blighter then informed me that I had £11 to spend and it wouldn't let me change to the UK unless I spent it. So I had to rush and decide on something from iTunes, and it still wouldn't let me come home. By now I was very frustrated and ready to throw the thing at the wall. Ian calmly took it off me, closed the App Store, reopened it, and lp and behold I was English again! Oh how Ian laughed. 

We spent part of the morning watching Leeds v Middlesborough and deciding we were just as good as either of those, before ceremoniously retrieving the season ticket wallet from the Very Important Ticket file, deciding on coats (yes for Vicky, no for me), donning shoes and heading for the door. "Stop" said Ian, "where is my hat?". A panicked few minutes ensued before Vicky and I decided to set off, he could be a while yet. Round about the Brentwood we looked back to find him in hot pursuit, hatless. A bad omen? We had arranged to meet Wooly and James in the New York Tavern so headed down Alma road. The Tavern was packed as we arrived but we picked them out and Ian headed for the bar. Vicky was told by everyone what a great day out she missed at Wembley, and nodded politely while gritting her teeth. We discussed the fact that Kieran 'I want to play for Leeds but they won't pay me what I'm worth!' Agard had been dropped in favour of Paul 'I'm on loan to you from HM prison Wandsworth' Taylor. I also spotted Mr Nasal chatting by the bar, a good omen?

Then Vicky and I decided that we were too excited to wait any longer, supped up and left. The crowds heading down Don Street made us think we were in for a big crowd, although turnstyle number 10 was closed, maybe an Ian style problem had occurred. We decided to move down to numbers 11 and 12 as the queue was moving faster. I took 12 and Vicky 11. 

Ian and and the boys arrived just after with news of an exciting sighting. Mr Serial Killer had been spotted outside the ground wearing a nice red button up shirt, his usual slacks, and sporting, according to Ian, neatly trimmed eyebrows. Just before kick off the chairman, Tony Stuart was made a freeman of the borough, a richly deserved accolade. 

Left in our seats were red cards that we were to hold up as the players came out to show a wall of colour. In a nice touch by us, cos we are like that, the Wolves fans were given gold cards. 

All the seats around us were filled with the twitchers behind and a very large lady in front of me, goo for warmth in the winter months methinks. On the end, next to me, was the old guy who left early the other week. Must be his season ticket seat. Maybe I will try to engage him in conversation later in the season when we have bedded in. 

As I looked longingly across towards our old seats, on the other side of the wall there, I could see the Ginner still in place. On the row in front, in those two empty seats you can see, are our new homes equivalent of the sixteenth minute man. Always in and out for pies etc. These kind of people never get seats on the end of a row, preferring to disturb the whole section just before a free kick or goal scoring opportunity. 

The tones of Frank Sinatra rang around the stadium, the whole crowd joining in with, 'if we can make it there, we'll make it anywhere, it's up to you, New York, NEEEEEWWW YOOOOOORK' while kicking their  legs. Finally the referee, Mr Salisbury, blew his whistle, and our home campaign began at last.

The first half showed us just how difficult this season will be, with Wolves closing us down quickly, not allowing our best players to get into the game, and forcing us to keep booting the ball forward to Alex Revell. However, the Mr Salisbury did not help at all, making some baffling decisions, most of which penalised the Millers. Adam Colin, the goalkeeper, also did his best for the The Wolves cause, with a couple of mix ups that almost let former Miller, Nouha Dicko, in to score. Luckily he has been eating all the Molineux pies since he left and has lost some of his pace, and in both cases Colin got back to make great saves. Perhaps he just wanted to look good and keep his place ahead of Scott Loach. Meanwhile, at the other end, the jailbird tricked his way into the area and hit the bar. A good signing I think. Half time arrived and we were hanging in at 0-0. 

Doing the half time draw were the famous actor from Rotherham who Is in ashes to ashes, not sure of his name, and the famous ex-Miller who won us promotion once as a player and twice as a manager, who's name I do know. 

Steve Evans took of young John Swift and replaced him with Ryan Hall at half time. A good decision most if us thought as the young man had found the first half difficult. Ian was unimpressed as, of course, Ryan is this seasons Lionel, i.e he can do no right. The twitchers gave us the lowdown on a couple of players, and also called for a Foul Throw, much to Vickys delight, as that is one of Ian's stock yells. All we need now is a full blooded call to 'get him in the book'. Mr Salisbury continued to baffle us with his decisions, giving free kicks to Wolves whenever they fell down. Indeed, he gave them one just because their player asked for it. 

This half we were in the game much more without creating any clear cut chances until the 76th minute. A Ben Pringle corner was whipped in and headed toward goal by Craig Morgan, their keeper pushed the ball out to one of their defenders who chested it down and booted it away, straight on to the bottom of Ryan Halls foot. From there it flew into the back of the net to send us all wild. 

For the last fifteen minutes, despite Mr Salisburys best efforts, the Millers ran the clock down and eventually ran out 1-0 winners. The first three points of the season. 

We were all highly satisfied as we exited via Don Street due to the revised exit strategy, even when there was some posturing between rival fans across the barriers on New York Way. We called at Tesco for some fizzy wine to celebrate and raised a glass to Ryan Halls left boot. 

P.S. The hat was on the back of a chair under my coat.

Men of the match

Ian - Green

Jackie - Revelinho

Vicky -  Revell

Funniest moment - The Wolves fans singing ' can you ref us every week' 

Ian's award - So many of them, but not giving a penalty for handball in the first minute. 

The ipad

The Cod Army come to town

Rotherham United vs Fleetwood Town, Tues 12th August 2014

Crowd 4487 (146 away)

The first round of the Capital one trophy, (formerly the Carling cup, the Worthington cup, the Coca cola cup, the Rumbelows cup, the Littlewoods cup, the Milk cup and originally the League Cup) and the Cod Army were in town. Well 146 of the Cod Army were in town. To be fair it's a long way to come for a Tuesday night game in a somewhat insignificant competition. Vicky and I decided that it was a little colder than of late so we would wear jumpers and take coats. We took a risk and decided to park in the small car park on Wellgate between the Hare and Hounds pub and the dodgy looking Polish supermarket as Chris couldn't drop us off. We arrived the stadium and Jostled for position, neither of us girls wanting to risk getting behind Ian in the queue. We took our seats in our usual spot, the twitchers were already there, and a lone man was sat on the end of the row next to Ian. 

Steve Evans had taken the opportunity to make some team changes and give a few players a rest, notably Pringle, Frecklington and Revell, giving the new additions a chance to show off their skills. 

Due to the small crowd, the South stand was completely closed and the Cod Army housed in a small section of the East stand.

The players and officials took to the field and it appeared we were in luck, the referee was our own Howard Webb, or at least an excellent imitation. A look at the programme told us it was not our Howard, but a very close second, Mr Miller! 

Mr Miller

 Our Howard

The game kicked off and for an hour and a half almost nothing happened. The Cod Army did their best to get behind their team, very loudly considering their paucity of numbers. The twitchers discussed the merits of allowing a rapist like Gary Madine back in the team. Then realised he was only a thug, Ched Evans is the rapist. They discussed a few of the Fleetwood players and where they played before. They discussed the Twitcher boss and what an idiot he is. They discussed the fact that the Fleetwood chairman had put Rotherham United in his sat nav and ended up at the Don Valley Stadium (or Don Valley demolition site). On the pitch nothing much happened. Off the pitch the temperature dropped. The Cod Army sang on, the Millers fans couldn't really be bothered. 

Half time arrived and we were too cold to move. The Millerettes arrived right in front of us and, perversely, despie the cold, Ian's paedo glasses turned dark. Not good when watching small children dance with Pom Poms. 

The players reappeared and play resumed in exactly the same pattern as the first half. Nothing happened. Vicky and I did notice that Ian and the twitchers have exactly the same views on the team. Usually one makes a comment behind us, then Ian makes a similar one from the side. Be interesting to see how this pans out over the season. The temperature dropped. The players who had come in to the team in order to show off their skills hadn't, so Evans subbed some off to bring on Pringle , Revell, and Derbyshire. The temperature dropped some more. 

A sudden horrific thought struck me. What happens if the game ends 0-0. Vicky searched on line and our worst fears were realised, it would indeed go to extra time and penalties. Fleetwood threw on their secret weapon in a last desperate attempt to avoid this. A very small, very ginger striker, who's life history was supplied in full by the twitchers. The Cod Army tried to gee them on as the temperature dropped to what must have been the coldest August night since records began, but to no avail. The clock ticked on to 90 + 2, and Mr Webb-Miller blew for time. The lone man left, obviously not made of stern enough stock. At least thirty more minutes to endure. 

Extra time was no better, the first 15 mins passing in a teeth chattering haze. The teams swapped ends for the final time and with the Millers kicking toward the North stand the clock ticked down. Then came the one true moment of class in the game. Marty Derbyshire got in front of his man in the area, tried to turn, bumped into him, fell over, and Mr Webb-Miller quite rightly gave a penalty. Up stepped Kieran, 'look at me I want a transfer' Agard, only to have the ball snatched away by Derbyshire, Kieran tried to grab it back but Matt was too strong for him. Alex Revell managed to hold Agard back long enough for Matt to slot the penalty home, then the arguing began again. One assumes that Agard is not happy. But we Millers fans were ecstatic, a goal at last and not long left. The Cod Army got right behind their team for the final few minutes but quality won out and the Millers were through to the next round. Thank god we could go home and warm up. 

Man of the match

Ian - Paul Green

Jackie - Paul Green

Vicky - Paul Green

Quote of the day

'Gary Madine is just a thug, not a rapist'

Funniest moment

The Millerettes

Ian's award

Matt Derbyshire brought down in the area and no penalty given. 

As a footnote I have just sat and watched the 2nd round draw and we are away at Swansea. One away game to which we will not be going.

Pride and prejudice

Derby County vs Rotherham United, iPro stadium, Saturday 9th August 2014

Crowd 30,105

Mid August, bright sunshine, it must be the start of the football season once again. Of course this is a long awaited, and very special, season for all Millers fans. Our first season back in the championship for nearly ten years courtesy of That Wembley win over Leyton Orient. We had arranged for Wooly and James to travel down with us but a late change meant just the three of us would be making the short trip down the M1. A more significant late change was to occur later. Ian called for the paper and picked up a bottle of champagne, a little optimistic Vicky and I thought, but we decided it could be merely a celebration of the 2014-2015 season kicking off.  Only an hours journey meant no need for the munch box, (they will be introduced later in the season) and a late 1pm start. Shirts on, glasses, hats, sunscreen, tissues, lip stuff, phones at the ready, and we were off.

No hold ups on the way and we were arriving at the fireplace company car park, five minutes from the ground, at around 2pm. Ian begrudgingly handed over the £6 fee and we struck out for the ground formerly known as Pride Park. Ian and I have visited once before in our championship years when the goalkeeper Mike Pollitt was wrongly red carded for handling outside the are and we were soundly  beaten 3-0.  We have also visited Derby's former home, the baseball ground, back in 982. We were in old Division 2 at the time and in with a chance of being promoted to the first division. Unfortunatley Tony Towner missed a penalty and we missed out. The atmosphere at that game was one of the most hostile I have ever encountered, back in the bad old days of football violence at its worst. The ground is now called the iPro stadium, the sponsors have obviously payed big bucks for that. 

On our way to the stadium we passed a McDonalds, a Pizza Hut, and a Frankie and Bennys, the Millers away fans must have been in dreamland, indeed we saw a few who looked they had visited all three. 

There's the stadium to the right.

We carried on, Ian rushing ahead, us dawdling as it was only five past two, until we came to the ground and located a grubby looking burger van. Great! Ian wanted a burger, Vicky some chips for old times sake. She had chips at Accrington Stanley once and always remembers them fondly. 

 Accrington Stanley chips.

 Derby County chips

Perhaps she should have chips at every away ground for tasting purposes.

They finished their snack and we entered the ground, Vicky and I rushing straight to the loo, where we were stopped in our tracks by a young lady steward. 'Stop! You cannot go in, we have a leek.' She told us as two leek detection officers bustled past. Mmmm, we never get that at the New York, where our ladies toilets are pristine. We never got it at Don Valley down the spiral staircase either. Eventually we were admitted but told to watch our step in case we slipped over in the puddle and decided to sue. 

We did not. We climbed up and took our seats, high up in the corner of the stadium.

The view from our seat

The Rotherham allocation had sold out and were in very good voice, starting off by singing about Bobby Zamora, who scored the last minute goal against Derby at Wembley to prevent them getting promoted to the premier league, then chanting 'We won at wemberley, we won at Wemberley.' We were so load that I couldn't hear what Vicky was saying. 

The two teams emerged from the tunnel to thunderous applause, then the big screen started playing some video that is obviously meant to gee up the Derby fans who all joined in. It involved pictures of Brian Clough, a Sheep, and ended with the words 'Derby Pride'. I'd like to think that they named the stadium because of the song. 

The referee, who we thought was Kevin Friend, blew his whistle, and the season began. Derby played the ball forward, Joe Scarz slipped, and there followed about ten minutes of sustained Derby pressure. Welcome to the championship! But gradually we settled down, and toward the end of the half actually looked on top. The ref booked Joe Scarz somewhat harshly for a foul on the halfway line, then let a Derby player off when he did exactly the same thing, much to Ian's disgust. There was 

a big kerfuffle at the front of the adjacent Derby fans when a giant man was hauled out of the crowd and it took about eight stewards five minutes to restrain him, and the police became involved when a group of Rotherham fans at the front persistently stood up. It's an offence that carries the death penalty at a football match. Other than that both sets of fans were well behaved. Half time and we were well pleased to go in at 0-0. On googling during the break it became clear that the ref was actually Andy D'Urso, having replaced Mr Friend at the last minute. Not our favourite referee. We also noticed Howard Webb chatting to fans just below us, no doubt explaining why a booking for Scarz was justified while one for the Derby player was not. 

The players re-emerged and the game restarted. Once again we were under the cosh for a few minutes and once again we gradually came into it. Both teams had good chances before Ben Pringle fell over under pressure, a clear foul according to Ian, not so clear cut according to me and Vicky. The derby player swept upfield and crossed for a Mr Hendrick to slot home. Cue some strange bouncing from the Derby fans and an encouraging backing from the Millers. The players really pushed on for the last few minutes but despite some close calls the Rams ran out winners. The Rotherham fans gave the players a huge ovation as they came over after the final whistle, deservedly so. Their performance was excellent, they just need to be more clinical with their finishing.

We slowly exited the stand, and waited for Vicky to use the flooded loo, thus making us one of the last in the stadium (a family tradition), before heading for the fireplace car park. Unfortunately sheffield weds had won so all the fans phoning praise or grumble (I haven't been but we were brilliant) were confident of promotion. We had to wait till 5.30 to get out, we'll have to see if that's a quick or slow exit by championship standard, and were on our way home, in 19th place and on no points. 

Final score Derby 1 Rotherham 0

Men of the match

Ian - Kari Arneson

Jackie - Lee Frecklington

Vicky - Lee Frecklington

Quote of the day

Ian, ' I'm not very happy about the ill sea creature. ' us 'what?'. Ian 'The sick squid' Boom Boom

Funniest moment.

The inspirational video played before the game

Ian's award

Mr D'Urso missing the 'clear' foul on Ben Pringle.

New feature

Loo watch

Ladies 4/10. Not many and flooded

Men's 3/10 inadequate for number of fans

Friendly foxes

Rotherham united vs Leicester city, New York Stadium 5th August 2014

Our second pre-season friendly coincided with Ian's birthday and a visit by my sister, Heather. When we realised she would be staying with us we asked if she fancied coming with us to watch the match. She isn't interested in football, has never been interested in football, but has got caught up in all the post promotion excitement. We stayed with her the night after the Wembley triumph and she had to endure endless replays of the match and 'the goal', so much so that she decided she would jump at the chance to visit the iconic New York and especially watch the maestro, Alex Revell, live. 

We parked at Ian's office and started walking toward the ground. Being a friendly the crowds were rather sparse, but the closer we got to the ground the more worried she became. As we arrived on Don Street she announced, 'I don't like it, I'm scared'. Looking around me I saw all the usual types of people. The drunken louts with viral tattoos weaving their way along, the really ugly men (and women) that you tend to see at away games, the shifty young lads in big groups giving it large. 'What of?' I asked, nonplussed. 'All these horrible men, and no other women' she replied. A quick glance around showed us that, there were indeed, some other women, some more obvious than others, and as the bottleneck of Don Street broadened out into the North car park, she relaxed a little. The next hurdle was looming however, the turnstyles. Firstly she had brought a handbag, yes a handbag! This of course required searching for knives, flares, umbrellas etc. 'this is my first football match' she told the one eyed steward with squirmy teeth. 'Ha ha ha ha ha,' he merrily replied. Then she had to enter the ground. She had read the last blog and was very worried that she would be denied access and left outside with the scary other fans while we laughingly hustled through. Kind family that we are we let Ian go in first to instruct her in the proper use of the ticket (Ha ha ha ha ha). And Vicky and I came behind so we could save her if she couldn't get in. Luckily all went smoothly.  

We headed for our seats, very quiet around us once again although the twitchers were there. Must be as dedicated as us. Heather was now feeling much less afraid and we took a few photos for the album. You can see the twitchers in the background!

The players were introduced and john swift, the Chelsea starlet on loan for the season was to start. We started brightly but were undone by a couple of good Leicester moves/poor defensive decisions and were 2-0 down at halftime. Heather was disappointed that we saw very little of the maestro, and that she didn't get chance to join in with 'come on you reds' due to the lack of atmosphere. She was also very disappointed with the scoreline, despite it only being a friendly. 

Evans completely changed the team for the second half with only Swift and Wood staying on. He looks a wonderful player, just lacking a little defensively, but I'm sure Evans will bully that into him. Agard scored his customary, 'I'm here, I'm good, come buy me' goal. 

Although I really hope he does stay with us. That gave us the chance to leap up and cheer, which Heather enjoyed immensely. Colin made a couple of outstanding saves, hopefully he will get the nod over Loach who had played in the first half. We have good competition for goalkeepers though. Then Leicester went and scored again. Agard missed a sitter, 'don't bother, I'm rubbish'. Maybe he does want to stay. The sponsors man off the match was, unsurprisingly, John Swift, the news greeted with a huge round of applause. The New York faithful really like this boy. 

In the end Leicester won 3-1, but as the twitcher said, they don't play till a week on Saturday and our players needed to be more careful. 'Do you want to sample the delights of the New York toilets', I asked Heather on our way out. 'We'll save that for next time' she replied. 

Man of the match

Jackie - John Swift

Ian - John Swift

Vicky - Adam Collin

Heather - Pringles left foot

Quote of the day

'This is my first football match' Heather at turnstyle

Funniest moment

Walking to the ground me saying to Heather 'I always get overtaken by men with sticks or people with a limp' then turning round on hearing a noise to see a besticked man and a man in a mobility scooter bearing down on me. 

Ian's award

No memorable refereeing decisions either way.