Oh how I hate these, blasted international breaks. With going on holiday as well it had been a massive 27 days since we had seen the Millers live, almost as long as the summer between seasons. Since the away game at Carrow Road a lot has happened, here are just a few.
-Dougie Freedman of Bolton left by mutual consent
-Colin Cooper, the Hartlepool manager resigned
-In a remarkable turn of events Watford ruthlessly sacked the unbeaten Billy McKinlay after just two matches in charge . The Hornets harshly booted the former Fulham coach out of the door in order to appoint a more experienced manager with a proven winning record, in Slavisa Jokanovic.
McKinlay has only been handed the job eight days earlier after replacing Oscar Garcia, who had been forced to step down due to health concerns. As a result McKinlay's brief tenure is the sixth shortest managerial reigns in English football. The Scot departed Vicarage Road with Watford third in the Championship, but level on points with the top-2 teams
-Scunthorpe sacked Russ Wilcox
-Tranmere sacked Rob Edwards
-Nigel Wothington of York resigned.
These international breaks are bad news for managers.
-England beat San Marino 5-0 at Wembley and Estonia 1-0 in Tallin, where we will be visiting next June. They were down to 10 men though
-Former Millers hero and villain Mark Robins became Scunthorpe manager.
-Neil Lennon was appointed Bolton manager.
More importantly though, a heel injury forced the return of ex Leeds favourite Luciano Beccio to Norwich after only four games and two goals taking his songs with him.
So sad!!
And a woman lived for a month with a three inch leech up her nose after swimming in a lake in Vietnam
So Gross!!!
The match was to be live on Sky, meaning we had to make sure to record it plus the one after. I am terrified of a repeat of the play-off final debacle when the penalties meant we ended up seeing Northern Ireland play a friendly instead of Steve Evans singing New York New York. It was also to be a Friday night game. This meant that both sets of fans had all day to down gallons of beer, the four year old boy on the street corner could tell there would be trouble. It sold out the week before, Ian and I contributing massively to that as we helped out a friend who wanted 7 tickets for a group of Dutch fans , friends of his sister, who were coming over for a game of such calibre. I did have a moment of doubt when I saw Ian and Vickys names on the tickets, meaning that any trouble by the Dutch and both would be banned for life. Then I thought it would be them not me and the worry vanished.
The day dawned bright and sunny, and it was with a spring in my step that I set off for work, pulling out of the drive and nearly running over the single magpie that swooped across my path. Oh dear. As usual the day sped by and I rushed home to find the house empty and no tea on the table. Chris had forgotten to cook! Ian and I set too making hasty sandwiches as the turnaround time for a night match after work is only fifteen minutes, usually just time to gobble down the tea that is waiting for us. Chris arrived home with Vicky in tow, having collected her from the station, and we rushed out the door. We arrived at the library in time to see a police horse chasing down a group of fans, good fun, and joined the throng heading for the New York. We entered via turnstyle 10, remember that, and took our seats in front of the twitchers. No sign of old guy on the end, although I did remember him saying he was going to watch it from the pub. Can't beat the atmosphere in the slaughtered lamb. Although the atmosphere at the New York had to run it close. The place was hopping.
Word was that Leeds Italian owner, Cellini, was not at the stadium due to his dislike of the number 17, what with today being the 17th. Also that their new manager, the delightfully named Slovenian Darko, had named their humongously expensive Brazilian Adryano in the team, but then dropped him to,the bench immediately before the match in favour of Italian Doukara on instruction from the owner. We had Ian's dream team of Derbyshire and Hall playing. Great. The teams emerged to very muted music, the tannoy had obviously been turned down for Sky. There was no sign of the Milerettes either, clearly Sky had decided that small children from Rotherham could not be viewed on national TV. We could hardly hear New York New York, but sang along anyway. Ian and Wooly were waving and gesticulating wildly to someone on the side. It turned out that John, a Man Utd fan brought up in Leeds but with a deep hatred of them, had got a ticket over there. He soon moved across to sit with us though.
The match kicked off to a great roar, with the noise level being kept up throughout. We kept trying to hit it long to Revell, and let him find Derbyshire, only for him to fluff a shot or fall over. In fact the first half was very scrappy until a through ball found Italian Antanucci, the Red Sea parted like a slab of butter and he slotted home calmly past Colin. Arneson may have marked Robben and Van Persie out of the game but the Leeds attack were proving more difficult.
The Millers upped their game after that and a superb Pringle cross found Revell, who headed goal ward only for their keeper to push it wide. 0-1 at half-time.
The second half saw a change, with the ineffective Hall off and Taylor replacing him. We immediately went at Leeds like a whirlwind, with the midfield pressing and harrying Leeds European softies and Revell causing all sorts of problems up front. The goal was coming, and it duly arrived in the 58th minute. A great run and shot by Frecklington was parried by their Italian keeper, but only into the path of a fired up Revell. There was only one place the ball was going to end up.
Revell loves the TV cameras!
Steve decided he had seen enough (or not enough) of Matt Derbyshire and decided to replace him with young record signing Jonson Clark-Harris, much to Ian's delight. 'I'm not clapping him I'm clapping the change', he stated. What an inspired substitution that turned out to be. No more than two minutes later Revell challenged one of their Italians in midfield, he fell over and rolled about like he had been shot with a sniper (TV replays showed Revell never actually touched him) and the ball fell to Jonson. This time the Red Sea parted in our favour with no-one from Leeds bothering to put in a challenge and he surged forward and shot from just outside the area. The ball swerved all over the place deceiving the keeper and nestled in the corner of the net. Cue wild scenes as he sprinted for our corner flag and skidded across the turf on his knees. These seats are turning out to be not half bad.
He shoots....
He scores
He celebrates!
We ere on the verge of a famous victory, but Darko had seen enough and an Italian was replaced by the expensive Brazilian.
Darko getting hot under the collar
He was certainly very tricksy and bought out a superb save from Adam Collin. He is certainly turning out to be a championship class keeper.
We have been guilty of sitting back when we take the lead, but spurred on by the crowd we defended stoutly. The referee showed four minutes of added time and we managed to keep the ball in our corner for three and a half of them. Leeds did manage to surge forward at the last, the referee giving them a hand as four minutes stretched to five. They won a corner and their Italian keeper went up, but it came to nothing and the final whistle blew. A great second half, and determination and will to win from the players had seen us victorious over a team that have been at the pinnacle of English football. Not only that, but we are now only four points off the play off places. Premier league here we come.
Next up a home match against Fulham next Tuesday. Let's hope the tea is ready.
Men of the match
Ian - Revell (although tempted by Collin)
Jackie - Revell
Vicky - Revell
Ian's award - playing on for a least double the amount of added time at the end.
Funniest moment - Ben Pringles WWF style assault on one of their players on the halfway line.
Quote of the day - From a Leeds United Fans Forum
'our lot looked like a herd of sheep scattered by a wild dog in the second half.'
Question of the day
Jackie about a free kick on the edge of the area-'They are doing The Starfish'
Vicky- 'They are all stood offside'
Jackie-'you cannot be offside from The Starfish'
Can you?
Great result but what's a starfish?
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