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?)
Burn the hat!
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