As the new season starts, I find myself on holiday in France which means I have to call on another (as I will for all games that I can). Via twitter I found the best RUFC blogger I could.
To make this easy to understand who is talking about what, you'll find all my Rotherham's input in italics and a different font.
I'm Gareth, and this will be my eighth year as a season ticket holder. In that time I’ve seen nothing but misery. Two relegations, 37 points taken off us, a move to Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium and the heartbreak of a playoff final defeat. Maybe it’s about time I started watching football elsewhere!
Some interesting facts on Rotherham United:
- We reached the first ever league cup final in 1961 losing out 3-2 to Aston Villa over two legs.
- We won the first ever FA Cup penalty shootout 7-6 against Scunthorpe United in 1991
- In 1996 we were the winners of the Auto Windscreen Shield beating Shrewsbury Town 2-1
- In 1889 we signed the first ever fully professional black footballer Arthur Wharton
- We have been into administration three times, the latest being in 2008.
- We are set to move into our new 12,000 seater stadium ready for the start of the 2012-2013 season.
The Rotherham players to keep an eye out for the rest of the season would be Lewis Grabban and Danny Schofield. Grabban looks a real talent. Skill, pace, an eye for a goal, he seems to have everything, and he’s only young. Schofield is also another coup in my opinion. The former Huddersfield and Millwall player brings experience to this very young side. Not only that, but he adds the quality we lost when Nicky Law moved to Motherwell. It was his deft pass that set up Grabban for his goal. I have a feeling that these two will cause teams some real problems.
Now onto the game.
The first half of the match was a real non-starter. It was as though both teams didn’t want to get off to a bad start to the season. Oxford created the first real opportunity when an Asa Hall header hit the post from a Davis free kick and Michael Duberry blazed over the bar from around six yards out.
Rotherham did manage an effort in the first half when a Cresswell header from a Schofield corner was tipped over the bar. However, I’m not entirely certain it was going in, but, at least we managed to threaten the Oxford goal.
It was Rotherham who took the lead early in the second half. Lewis Grabban, from 19 yards out with the outside of the foot, found the top corner. A superb goal with Clarke having no chance.
Oxford did rally as the half went on, however, they never really tested goalkeeper Logan. Efforts from Constable and Leven went wide of the target.
Rotherham mustered another chance with Grabban outpacing Wright and keeper Clarke dived onto low strike from Grabban to his right.
I was amazed that we’d managed to hang on; especially seeing as this was our first clean sheet since pre-season began.
These were the line-ups and my player ratings for both sides.
Rotherham United
- 01 Logan - 6
- 02 Tonge - 6
- 03 Newey – 7.5
- 05 Cresswell – 7.5
- 22 Brown - 8
- 04 Harrison - 6
- 08 Taylor - 6
- 11 Schofield – 7.5 (Pringle 84)
- 10 Le Fondre – 6.5
- 20 Holroyd - 6 (Evans 72)
- 23 Grabban - 8
Oxford United
- 01 Clarke - 7
- 02 Batt - 6
- 03 Tonkin - 7 (Pittman 68)
- 05 Duberry – 7.5
- 06 Wright - 7
- 16 Whing - 6
- 14 Hall - 6 (Leven 75)
- 18 Payne – 7 (Potter 57)
- 26 Davis – 6.5
- 09 Constable - 6
- 10 Smalley - 7
Browny: Rotherham will be up and around the top and failed to break us down and we looked pretty assured at the back. No lack of effort from the team
Couple of observations, the pitch seemed very slow and the ball didn't seem to run which helped there direct style. And how embarrassing is it to have two microphones in front of the home fans to enhance the noise they were making. Geez they would have to be good microphones because you simply cannot generate an atmosphere there
All in all nothing to be too downcast about, its very early days
Couple of observations, the pitch seemed very slow and the ball didn't seem to run which helped there direct style. And how embarrassing is it to have two microphones in front of the home fans to enhance the noise they were making. Geez they would have to be good microphones because you simply cannot generate an atmosphere there
All in all nothing to be too downcast about, its very early days
I thought Oxford did look pretty solid defensively, but, didn’t really have much goal threat and failed to trouble our keeper.
Browny: Lets not be too downcast after one game. It was a pretty poor game with the two teams largely cancelling each oter out and settled by a worldy
Strange team selection in some ways, Payne has had a very good pre season in central midfield and played on the right side where he was less influential. Didn't expect to see Davis start but thought he was impressive. Concerned that the ball came back too easily from the front men and in general our delivery from crosses was poor
Strange team selection in some ways, Payne has had a very good pre season in central midfield and played on the right side where he was less influential. Didn't expect to see Davis start but thought he was impressive. Concerned that the ball came back too easily from the front men and in general our delivery from crosses was poor
From reports I've read the injuries of Capaldi, Leven, McLaren in particular have had a big affect on our first game of the 2012 season. But as Moobs says: I'm not being critical of the team or performance just this viewpoint. 2 of those players haven't played for us yet. New players should compliment an already decent side. Relying on them to patch flaws in your side after the first match of a season is a pretty lame excuse. So I suppose onwards and upwards
Tedbundy: We lost game in midfield today:Whing isnt a midfielder .we need to get Leven, Heslop,Maclaren fit asap ...cant blame strikers as they got no service...we looked solid at the back even if Batt had a stinker ...Really if game had been 0-0 we would have been happy but unfortunately Rotherham produced the one moment of magic to decide it....One other thought...hadnt been there b4 but it struck me as a good place for a team 1-0 up to kill a game ...when the ball went off on the far side it always seemed to take ages to come back into play...
yelloexile: from what I could see about a mile away from the pitch, was that the midfield did let us down a little. The other thing was that pretty much all their effective attacks came down our left side, and they occasionally ripped us apart from there - which is where their goal came from, despite it being a blinding strike.
I'm not too pessimistic though. Duberry was immense. Clarke pulled off a couple of very good saves. We hit the post and should have had a penalty, and the lino near us had a shocker.
After seeing the first league match of the season, for both teams, it’s still hard to judge where they’ll finish. I’m still of the opinion that we may scrape into the playoffs, but likely a tenth place finish.
I'm not too pessimistic though. Duberry was immense. Clarke pulled off a couple of very good saves. We hit the post and should have had a penalty, and the lino near us had a shocker.
After seeing the first league match of the season, for both teams, it’s still hard to judge where they’ll finish. I’m still of the opinion that we may scrape into the playoffs, but likely a tenth place finish.
I predict that Rotherham will be challenging in the Top 5 for most of the season. You can shut ALF up for a whole game and they still have enough quality to score a screamer - this differs a lot from what I saw last season.
I’d imagine Oxford’ll be in the mix come May, but likely to finish in the playoffs.
It's obviously hard to predict after or even before our first game. But I'd like to think as the team gels we'll really pick up. Stupidly early days though.
Full Time: Rotherham 1-0 Oxford
Attendance: 4,484
MOM: Troy Brown (Rotherham)
Twitter: @GarethSimmons
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