Match Report Rotherham United 2 Preston North End 1

Rotherham United 2 Vaulks, Smith Preston North End 1 Nmecha

Rotherham United line-up: Rodak, Mattock, Vaulks, Ajayi, Wood (c), Palmer (Forde, 46), Taylor (Newell, 46), Williams, Smith, Wiles, Raggatt. Subs not used: Price, Yates, Hinds, Southern-Cooper.

 

PNE line-up: Rudd, Clarke (c), Hughes (Woods, 67), Ledson, Storey, Huntington, Barkhuizen, Johnson, Nmecha, Burke, Gallagher. Subs not used: Crowe, Fisher, Woods, Simpson, Baxter, O’Reilly, Walker.

 

Attendance: 9,077 (1,141 PNE fans)

 

Referee: Mr L Probert

This was a game we should have won by half time however missing a shed load of chances in the first half, we conceed on half time, the home side mahe two changes at the break bag a second and hang on for grim death after we reduced the arrears.

Arriving at the ground a full two hours before the start had a wander around the town, lots of closed down shops gave the impression of grimness, although the Town Hall looked a decent old fashioned building.

North End unchanged started well and looked like they had Rotherham for the taking, Barkhuizen twice through missed one and was brought down cynically by Palmer on the edge of the box, Burke mnissed two, too slow on the first occasion and Johnson also got into acres of space but his poor final ball wasted the opportunity. The Millers started to get into the game and Rudd had too make one smart save from Wiles tipping over a goal bound save, but it only seemed a matter of time until a goal arrived sadly for us on the stroke of half time it was the Millers that got it.

Tree kick just outside the penalty area, Rudd lined his wall up, Vaulks blasted the ball past it and Rudd into the net. Rudd should have done better but it went in at such a rate with a bit of late swerve. One down and this season we have not come from behind to win.

Two substitutes from the home side at the break helped them, they closed us down and did not allow us to play, played far better than they did in the first half and generally looked the side more likely to win it. 

They doubled the lead when Johnson gave the ball away on the halfway line, Clarke left exposed the home winger bombed down the wing put in a great cross which just said head me in, Smith did just that. Within a couple on minutes we were back in the game as Nmecha pulled a goal back from about five yards.

Then it was a seige on the home goal Nmecha had one cleared off the line and there was nearly a comedy own goal but the home side survived and took the spoils. Disappointing but we were just not clinical enough in front of goal.

Rotherham assistant manager Richie Barker: "It was a vital three points and after looking at other results it was even more important.

"The togetherness was excellent, the organisation was okay in a patched-up team. We had a few square pegs in round holes so we are obviously delighted to get the three points but we are well aware we need to improve things.

"The performance wasn't great but they don't know that they're beat. They dig in when things are not going so well. The character is excellent.

"Our game-management towards the end was not entertaining, but year or so ago we might have lost that game."

Preston manager Alex Neil: "I was extremely frustrated but I couldn't tell my players they hadn't played well because it wasn't true. There was real frustration and disappointment because we spurned opportunities.

"Normally Rotherham are hard to create chances against but we created six by half-time. As a coach you know when your team has played well.

"Their goalkeeper getting man of the match tells you the story of the game. The simple fact is we didn't take the opportunities that we created. They went in knowing that they had not played well. They knew they had something to hang on to."

RotherhamUnited v Preston North End New York Stadium 1/1/2019

Sydney, Paris, London and New York, wonderful places to start the New Year I have ben told, tomorrow I get tostart the New Yar in New York(Stadium) in that wonderful area of Britain commonly known as Rotherham.

There are worse places to be at the start of the year but not the most sexy places to go. Last time we rocked up there cruised to a 3-1 victory with McGeady giving their full back an absolute roasting, he was so bad we signed him, hello Darnell.
The Merry Millers have done reasonable well this season although they have tended to draw a lot of games, at the moment they are bottom of the form guide with two points from the last six games, on Saturday lost 1-0 to Bristol City although heroically nearly bagged a point even though they had two sent off, Jones and Towell. Reverse game ended 1 all and in fairness they didn't look that bad a side.
As we are in South Yorkshire there will no police to be seen they will be giving seasons greetings to Sir Cliff Richard.
Credit to the Millers on the price of this one costing me £20 less than my trip to Hillsborough 10 days ago.

Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers,^[1] is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system, following its promotion from League One in the 2017–18 season.

Founded in 1925 as a merger between Rotherham Town (1899) and Rotherham County (1870),^[2] the club's colours were initially yellow and black, but later evolved into the more traditional red and white.^[3] Rotherham United play their home games at New York Stadium, a 12,021 capacity all-seater stadium, having previously played since its foundation at Millmoor for 101 years. Joining the Football League back in 1925, Rotherham spent the first 25 years of their time in Division Three North, the lowest level of the Football League, finally gaining promotion to Division Two at the end of the 1950–51 season.^[4]

The Millers featured in the inaugural League Cup final in 1961,^[5] and won the 1996 Football League Trophy and 1946 Football League North Cup. They also achieved two separate back to back promotions in 1999–2001 under Ronnie Moore and 2012–2014 under Steve Evans.

Again we will be down to the bare bones as our new signing whenever he does sign Josh Ginnelly cannot play tomorrow, be highly surprised if we are as good as we were on Saturday suspect this could be a very tired performance for both sides

Lucky win

North End duly got into the third round of the F A Cup after a rather narrow 1-0 over Shrewsbury Town, Huntington's left footed strike from 12 yards settled the contest half way through the first half. A fairly even first half apart from the score line, an early one handed save by home keeper Stuckmann who kept out Collins goal bound shot set the tone. Within minutes Leutwiler had denied Gallagher down the other end in what was becoming a very open cup tie. The Shrews looked a decent outfit playing passing football with the flame haired Woods looking good in midfield.
A period of pressure brought what turned out to be the winning goal, a corner was not properly cleared and Huntington left footed blast would not have shamed a top striker. North End coped comfortably for the rest of the first half and although the visitors had a lot of the ball we did not look in trouble.
The second half was a different story as the Shrews dominated, it took the home side 20 minutes to realise they had not actually won the game, by which time the Shrews had had two efforts by Grant well saved by Stuckmann and a Collins effort cleared from the line by Buchanan.
It was the goal line clearance that finally brought a response from the home side and in one of their rare attacks into the Shrewsbury, Beckford was brought down in the area after a piece of comedy defending by the visitors keeper.
Gallagher's kick summed up the home sides second half performance, sliced horribly wide and appeared to hit a visiting fan in row 25 to the right of the goal.
It was end to end stuff by now as the visitors threw caution to the wind although it has to be said they created little. North End had chances at the end to win by more but in keeping with their second half performance they missed them all.

Preston North End 1 Shrewsbury Town 0 Att 6011

Into the East

Another new ground today, a trip into the east of Lancashire were the six fingered ones live, Dingleland. A journey which should have taken about 60 minutes took 90 minutes due to the inability of drivers on the M6 to keep a safe distance from each other, add in a couple of wrong turns by yours truly it was almost a pleasure to actually find Victoria Park home of Nelson FC a North West counties side based a couple of miles from Burnley. 
Visitors today were runaway league leaders Runcorn Linnets. Surprise No 1 the ground was fantastic, set next to a river, tree lined, with a row of terrace houses over looking the ground, a decent playing surface. Surprise No 2 I knew the home sides first team coach, went to his 21 st birthday about 15 years ago, top bloke he is as well.
Both sides have had a recent chequered histories, Nelson folded about four years ago due to general apathy in the area, reformed two seasons ago and instantly won promotion to Division 1 of the NWCL. Runcorn were formed by supporters of the old Runcorn FC who at one time were a considerable non league force having won the FA Trophy and also destroyed a few league clubs in the FA Cup at the old ramshackle Canal Street ground.
Runcorn started impressively and hit the post twice in the first 10 minutes, they played passing football , they were playing the home side off the park and looked as though they were going to win handsomely, but a few rustic tackles later Nelson started to get a toe hold in the game and after 25 minutes took the lead.
The goal was slightly controversial as the home side were given a throw in when the ball didn't look to have gone out. A long ball up field caused panic at the back for Linnets and ex league player Joe O'Neil never looked like missing. (1-0) This prompted a discussion between the defenders it appeared that Richard Head was at fault.
A huge advantage was given to the Linnets minutes later when an off the ball incident resulted in home forward Wright being sent off, as he wandered to the tunnel Wright complained that the officials were both clucking hit houses or something like that. Runcorn bemoaned their luck for the third time as the woodwork was struck again. On the stroke of half time the Linnets lost the ball on the half way line and surprisingly were outnumbered, on strolled Morrison, his shot took a deflection and in she went. (2-0)
Both managers berated the referee on the way to the tunnel, must have disagreed with some decision probably.
Nelson got their tactics spot on in the second half, defended in numbers and broke when they could, Linnets lacked the width and the intelligence to break them down and the only way they looked like scoring was from a dead ball and sure enough the hapless official gave a penalty, White scored it game on. (2-1)
White's interest in the game became a watching brief as he also got a red card for handbags at a corner, ten a side but still the Linnets piled forward but still looked short of ideas when it got to the penalty area. The Linnets fans were less than impressed with the home sides time wasting tactics but you couldn't blame them they had worked their socks off to warrant a desrved victory.

Nelson 2 Runcorn Linnets 1 Att 190

FA Vase

Had the choice of three games today at Lancaster, Darwen or my final choice of Atherton Colliries. Darwen's game fell foul of the weather, didn't fancy watching now cash rich Salford at Lancaster on the grounds that teams with extremely wealthy backers tend to ruin lower leagues so it was off to Greater Manchester. 
Collieries had not lost a game all season only going out of the FA Cup on penalties against Radcliffe. Visitors Seaham Red Star were also on a hot vein of form and had been scoring goals for fun in their league.
Games against non league opponents from the North East are always competitive as this proved no exception. Collieries dominated the majority of the first half and the only surprise was they were not four down by half time, as early as the third minutes Red Star missed a glaring chance when Andrews failed to hit the target from close range. Colls played some gpood football but were ;let down by the final ball, whereas when Red Star went forward they looked dangerous every time. Colls playing down the slope in the first half looked to have some very useful players Battersby up front looked to have tons of skill. Red Star forced Taberner into two good saves before taking the lead from a penalty on 28 minutes, a thoroughly decent hacking down of a visitor brought a spot kick and Andrews scored. Before half time they worked another really good opening but missed that at well.
Colls started well in the second half as the manager obviously had a few words to say at the break and finally brought a save from Seaham keeper Newbrook, but the early onslaught soon fizzled out as Red Star's more experienced team started to pose more of a threat. A long ball down field caused chaos in the home defence and Palmer's classy finish made it two.
Within four minutes it was game on as substitute Cover squeezed the ball home from close range. Newbrook pulled off a cracking save under the bar to keep the visitors in front. It was the closest Colls got as Red Star kept the ball down in and and around the home penalty area in the final 10 minutes to earn them progress through to the next round.

Atherton Colliries 1 Seaham Red Star 2 Att 230

http://youtu.be/d18jsEq9Q3A


http://youtu.be/Y8S97-Qvs4s

No complaints

It's no coincidence that North End's current run of poor league form is down to one factor the yellow ball. Rochdale, Swindon and now Bradford City have deposited the yellow peril into the net more than we have or it may be down to the fact that we seem to have lost a bit of form.
You know what you get when you play the Bantams, they are direct, work their socks off and don't give you a minutes peace on the ball. You have to be at full tilt when you play them, today North End were for the main were distinctly off the pace. 
City started on the front foot and apart from a Gallagher shot just before half time did not threaten Pickford's goal. City won corner after corner, had free kicks in dangerous positions which they wasted. But as day follows night you knew they would be successful with a dead ball kick and sure enough a corner from the right duly arrived at the back post for McArdle to head home off the unguarded post. By half time City should have been out of sight but weren't.
North End started the second period brightly with Pickford making a double save from Garner and Humphrys as the home side threatened to get on top. The pressure didn't last long as Bradford started to win thousands of corners at the other end, North End had their luck poor finishing and some good defending kept them out.
Five minutes from the end the home side leveled, neat work by Robinson skipped around a couple of defenders to pass to Garner who slid the ball in. Looked like they gained a point but no within 30 seconds Yeates had curled in the winner from 20 yards.
Pickford performed heroics keeping King's shot out and Robinson and Garner should have hit the target with very good chances, but it's three defeats in the league and next up are league leaders Bristol City. Suspect a tough week on the training ground lies ahead.

Preston North End 1 Bradford City 2 Att 10300

Decent win

On a perfect night for football Lancaster City delivered probably their best display of the season by beating Burscough 4-1 in front of 145 fans at the Giant Axe last night., was not the fact they won it was the style of play. Bailey's goal after 10 minutes summed up the match, Bailey slotting home at the back post after a passage of play in which the ball did not go out of play for fully five minutes. City added a second although this time the goal had a bit of fortune to it as Burscough keeper miserably failed to deal with a tame Bailey shot. It looked as though City were on the way to a large win but credit to the visitors they tightened up at the back and started to look dangerous going forward although their final ball was often wasteful.
Within 10 minutes of the restart Winder made it three for City firing through a forest of legs past the unsighted keeper. Within five minutes a penalty gave the visitors a way back into the game Beesley expertly put away the kick. The penlty gave Burscough fresh hope but wasteful finishing stopped them from getting closer.
It was left to the much improved Taylor to fire City's fourth off the underside of the bar after a swift counter attack to seal the win.


Lancaster City 4 Burscough 1 Att 145