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
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