New York, New York. A championship year: Merry Xmas from New York

Rotherham v Nottingham Forest, Sat 13th Dec 2014, Att 11228

The Monday after the Cardiff game was the draw for the third round of the FA cup when us BIG clubs enter the Frey. I rushed home from work in order to watch the balls being drawn by Alan Shearer. We were number 33. Manchester City were drawn out at home, 'come on number 33' I yelled. Alan held up his ball, 'number 30.....' Yes, yes, yes, '4, Sheffield Wed!'. It could only happen to us. We ended up with Bournemouth at home, not the glamour tie we wanted, nor a beatable lower league team. Hmmm.

Thanks for nothing Alan

Forest were the visitors to the New York Stadium, the last home game before Xmas. It also was the day when the girls returned home for the holidays. Ian went down to Nottingham to collect Vicky and her plethora of possessions leaving me at home as the official Radio Rother FM listener. This was important as we were informed that James was to be a guest interviewee. He was, we were told, going to talk about the worst ever Miller and Wooly asked us for our opinion. We wracked our brains, let's face it there are plenty of contenders. Names like John Flynn (late 70s), Paul Haycock, John Otsemebor, Ian Helliwell, Stuart Evans, and anyone signed by George Kerr made the shortlist, but just beating Gisbert White Boots Bos into second place was the peerless Paolo Vernazza. Known affectionately as Paula Vanessa, Paolo came to us from Watford, having played for Arsenal, with great expectations. To be fair Ronnie Moore had taken a bit of a risk as he had been stabbed in the leg in his own home by a burglar. This caused him to play football like a girl and his 27 Millers performances were legendarily bad.

Paolo with friends Kanu and Suker during his halcyon days at Arsenal

I eagerly turned on the radio to hear James interview at the allotted time and was disappointed that there was no mention of Paula, or indeed any bad player. He did, however, mention us indirectly regarding the game at Cardiff being good and Matt Derbyshire being rubbish.

Ian arrived with Vicky, with Kathy turning up just after, and we had a lovely family lunch before setting off for the New York Tavern.

A beer and a brandy later we entered the ground via turnstyle 9 and annoyed old man on the end by having our photo taken.

Merry Christmas from New York

The team was announced as the same team as Cardiff, good news. There was a stir and laughter from Wooly and Ian and a programme was thrust into my hand open at the centre page. A photo of Me, Ian, Wooly and James from the game against Blackpool filled the page. Between Wooly and Ian a beaming Tweeter had his head circled. He had won the face in the crowd competition, prize, a years subscription to Millers player. Some people have all the luck. Vicky hadn't even bought a programme either, I am going to try and get one on Weds at the red and white shop.

The teams came out to an almost full stadium full of noise. Frank sang, we kicked, the ref blew and off we went. The first half passed much as had the game at Cardiff with us playing sexy football and Ladesma in particular looking Messi like on the wing. We passed and passed and created some excellent chances but could not finish any of them. Forest looked pretty poor to be honest. Half time arrived at 0-0.

Vicky visited the loo and reported not only a queue, but a disorganised queue, with people entering from both ends and chaos ensuing. We need to send a delegation to the Cardiff ladies toilets for advice.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first, total football with no end product. The wonderful Ladesma hit the bar with a dipping volley, Pringle missed a bouncing ball in the box. We did everything but score. The Forest fans took to taunting us with the old classic 'Rotherhams a xxxxxxxx, we want to go home.' As if waiting for them the tannoy announcer pressed his button. 'Bing Bong, for all fans travelling by the rail network, please be aware that there are the severest of severe delays and you are stuck here in Rotherham forever' or words to that effect. Much hilarity ensued before 'you're scabby Notts Forest, and you're not going home' rang around the stadium.

We pressed and pressed some more but to no avail. Finally the ref blew up to end the match 0-0 . Another draw and two more points dropped. Total sexy football is all well and good but we need to start scoring some goals. Now where did we put Matt Derbyshire?