The game against Fulham at the New York stadium was a case of those who have and those who don't. Two seasons ago Fulham were playing in the Premier League while we were in League 2. Fulham received a parachute payment of 60 (SIXTY) million pounds when they were relegated in May, we won a £25,000 prize for gaining promotion to the championship. Fulham striker Ross McCormack cost 11 million pounds from Leeds earlier this season, Jonson Clark-Harris, our record buy of all time, cost £400,000 from Oldham. McCormack cost more on his own then every single Rotherham United player ever signed added together. In short, they have lots more money than us. To be fair we don't need as much as they do. Their ex England midfielder Scott Parker earns a reputed £3.64 million a year, while Alex Revell will be lucky to make £100,000.
The morning of the match saw Hurracaine Gonzalo blow into town. A look out of the door at work saw a squall blow through with trees bending and torrential rain.
Come home time though the rain had stopped and the wind had calmed, although on locking up I decided the temperature warranted my Ski Jackets first outing of the season. After a stern talking to over the Friday Incident Chris had the tea on the table and the coffee made so we were able to leave in plenty of time. I hadn't see any magpies so the omens were good, and we reinforced them by crossing the road in the correct place and entering via turnstyle 10.
Old guy on the end was already in place and I instigated a conversation by asking him where he was Friday night. "Tenerife" he replied, putting pay to the shocking rumour that he had chosen to watch the match in the pub. The twitchers arrived and amused me by mentioning that Richard Osman had been tweeting that ' the whole nation was getting nervous about Rotherham v Fulham', and that he had tweeted back, 'no, it's just the Fulham fans'. Perhaps he should be renamed The Twitterer. The teams came onto the pitch and Jonson Clarke-Harris (forever after to be called JCH due to repetitive strain injury) was favoured instead of Derbyshire, much to our delight. The game kicked off and the Ski Jacket was doing its job, especially with the zip pulled up to max.
Unfortunately Fulham had recently sacked their useless manager and had gone on a brilliant run with four wins and a draw out of the last five, and they started well, but we kept them at bay. Then, in the 28th minute a shot by Taylor hit a suspiciously offside Revell and deflected into the Fulham net.
Paul Taylor can't quite believe that the goal is credited to Revell!!
The lead didn't last long before some overpaid southern softy dribbled into the area and tripped over his shoelace, with the ref inexplicably giving the penalty. Ross McCormack earned every penny of his colossal transfer fee by beating Collin from 12 yards. Back to 1-1. We huffed and puffed a lot, Primgle tossed in a few good balls and they fell over a lot, before the half drew to a close at 1-1.
No changes at half time but we began the second half really brightly, culminating in a sublime cross from Ben Pringles left foot and a superb volley from JCH.
The lead didn't last long before we lost the ball high up the field and Fulham broke and scored. Back to 2-2. Still, only 58mins gone and we were playing really well, passing the ball about smartly, crossing accurately and generally harassing the southern softies into making mistakes. Steve decided to make a change as JCH tired. He got a standing ovation as he left the field, which turned to a collective groan as Matt Derbyshire entered the Frey. We were surging forward in waves now and Alex Revell made a superb surging run to latch onto a long ball, powered his way to the byline beating the fullback all ends up, and lashed a curling cross right into Derbyshires forehead smack bang in the centre of the goal. It was easier to score than not, but Derbyshire doesn't believe in easy and somehow contrived to steer the header wide. Luckily the other 10 players on the park aren't half bad at football and we carried on battering at the door until, on 86 minutes, super Ben Pringle found himself unmarked on the end of the area and fired in a low shot that took a deflection off a Mr Bodurov into the net. Surely we would go on and win now. Unfortunately the lead didn't last long. In the 90th minute Fulham won a corner, and their giant centre half powered a header past Collin. 3-3. There was still time for them to worry us even more with a couple of attacks that made it feel like we were hanging on before the referee blew for time. We had got a 3-3 draw with a team that have lots of money, very good players, and are highly fancied for promotion, and we were disappointed. Walking back home the talk was of how Alex Revell has stepped up to Championship football with aplomb, putting in performance after performance of powerful forward play, and who would be available to drive Matt Derbyshire to Bury, or any other club that is stupid enough to take him. Next up Brighton away.
The end of the line?
Men of the match
Ian - Pringle
Jackie - Ben Pringle
Ian's award - the penalty, although ref was probably evening it up for the off side goal
Quote of the day
Richard Osman on Twitter
Rotherham have a player called Frecklington, you don't get that in the premier league!
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