Sombrero for Steve

Leeds United v rotherham United, Sat 2nd May 2015, Elland Road

It was party time at Elland Road as the Championship Year came to an end in Leeds. Steve had gone on record on Sky Sports that if enough people tweeted '#sombrero for Steve' he would don beach wear for the game and top,it off with a sombrero. If he can do it so can we thought the people of Rotherham and promptly started buying up the all Spanish hats for miles around. I imagine a blip on a hat manufacturers sales sheet somewhere on the Costa Del Sol showing that 95% of all the stock that week was sold in South Yorkshire, and the MD scratching his head in disbelief. I didn't want to shell out money for one and couldn't borrow one for love nor money, and Vicky had decided that hers would be too big for the train (??) so we set out for leads hatless. We had arranged to pick Vicky up at Leeds station as she had been to Ocean the night before to celebrate her 21st and needed all the sleep she should get, and we arrived and duly collected her in plenty of time. The Millers had sold over 2500 tickets, and despite being a meaningless game for both sides, a big crowd was expected, so the traffic around Elland road was heavy. Nevertheless we managed to get parked up just behind the stadium, although the poorly sea creature once again reared its ugly head. Bring back Bournemouth and it's one pound car park. 

Elland road is a big famous old stadium, but is starting to look a bit run down, not a patch on the New York. We weed our way between Leeds fans and Spanish people and entered the ground, after being searched of course, with the rest of the Millers fans and a Groucho on a Donkey. 

I have to say, for early May it was freezing cold, so we'll done all those Millers in flip flops and T-shirt. I had my big coat zipped all the way up. We weaved our way through all the sombreros, noticing a lot of stick on moustaches for some reason, to the toilets. Very disappointing. There were only three and they were old and worn. There was hot water though. We began the climb up to the gods where our seats were. I had been unable to persuade the guy at the ticket office not to give me seats with the yobos at the back, and indeed they were all there. Singing the annoying song and standing six deep in everyone else's seat. We also had two sombreros directly in front, and giant haystacks in a sombrero in the row in front of that. 

Our view

Mark and his daughter were in front of us (who's that beautiful young lady just behind?)

So were they

They were everywhere

Now I like the atmosphere as much as anyone, but I do like to be able to see, so I moved down a bit to a block of empty seats. Clearly they had been vacated by the moronic kids at the back. Good. I could see perfectly now, except for all the pillars. Thank god for the New Yorks cantileved stands. 

The atmosphere was great, the match was not. The players didn't let us down and with a bit more poise in front of goal we could have won, but it didn't matter a jot. Steve substituted Derbyshire, Freckligton and Ward, each getting a thunderous standing ovation. The fans sang all the way through and applauded each good move fervently. Today was about showing the team our appreciation for a job well done over the season. 

The final whistle went at 0-0 and a huge cheer rang out. We all stayed behind to applaud the players off the pitch.

The players applaud the fans after the game

Oh, and Stevies sombrero? We had missed it. Apparently he got off the coach in summer gear, walked on the pitch to show the media, then went back to change to get on with his proper job of being a football manager. Well done Steve

He did, however, take a bow in one thrown from the Crowd before saluting us. See you next Championship season Steve.

Men of the match

Ian - a crisp end to the season for Pringle ( groan)

Jackie - I'm giving it to Morgan in the hopes he signs a new contract

Vicky - I think I spent more of the game watching sombreros... I'll give it to... Smallwood, since he was given our player of the year, he played against Leeds right?

Toilet watch- not great, especially for a big club. 6/10

Funniest moment - seeing the stewards trying to search the woman on the donkey.