Prison pennant

Rotherham v Wigan, sat 14th March 2014, New York Stadium, Att 10,062

Another Saturday, another vital game for Rotherham United. This time Wigan were in town, six points and two places below us they occupied the last relegation place. Win and we would be nine points clear and laughing, to lose didn't bear thinking about. Along with the rest of the Latics came Jermaine 'prison' Pennant. After being sent to prison for drink driving and driving without insurance in 2005 (on being arrested he told police his name was Ashley Cole!), he had to play for Birmingham wearing an electronic tag, much to the delight of opposition fans.

Jermaines tag

Since then his list of misdemeanours rivals Nile Ranger. I came upon my favourite one while doing research for this blog. How the other half lives.

'In January 2011 Pennant's Porsche Turbo with his personal number plate was found abandoned at a railway station in Zaragoza with five months' worth of parking tickets. He was reported to have forgotten he owned the car.'

The car that Jermaine Forgot

Jermaine 

The day started well, Ian stepped out of the back door to feed the dog and and stepped straight in a pile of dog mess. How lucky is that? He didn't see it that way but Vicky and I were thrilled. No magpies were sighted and as we set off for the stadium we were all very optimistic. We entered via turnstyle 10 and grunted at OMOTE. Steve had decided on the same team that beat Huddersfield with young Farrend continuing in defence, the exception of course being Green in for the banned Frecks. Frank sang, we kicked, and we were off. Immediately Vicky and I spotted a problem. One of the Wigan players had terrible hair. It seemed to stand up on top, but keel over slightly to the side. We strained to get a better look, delighting when they got a corner so we could examine it more closely. The game carried on, and after around fifteen minutes of deliberation we decided we hated it.

Hairstyle of the year?

Anyway, no sooner had we got to grips with Ojo's Barnet  than Wigan got a free kick right on the edge of the area. Colin set up his wall, and  Prison stepped up and curled the ball into the left hand corner before Colin could move. 1-0 Wigan.  Five minutes later Wigan got a free kick in exactly the same place. Colin set up his wall, and Prison stepped up and curled the ball into the right hand corner before Colin could move. 2-0 Wigan. We had it all to do now. We started to press and just before half time a Pringle corner found Derbyshire who headed home. 2-1 and we had hope.

Unfortunately, although we pressed well during the second half and had lots of good chances, we couldn't break Wigan down and we lost 2-1. Back to looking over our shoulders at the chasing pack. Next up Nottingham Forest away. 

Men of match

Ian - hunt

Jackie - Arneson

Vicky - can't decide

Funniest moment - Ojo's hair