My football fest continued, three games in four days, as I drove through the rain to Rotherham. The New York Stadium always looks good on a dark night from the main road through the town. I parked and squelched my way to see Rotherham United play Burton Albion, a match that should have been played back on the 19th August on a much warmer balmy night. It had been postponed for various reasons until now and having bought a ticket for the original match it seemed silly to waste it.
This is one of my favourite modern stadiums although the weather and the mid table form of the two teams meant that the attendance was given as just over 7000, although it did not look like that many in the ground. An all seater, green grassed, flat pitched arena, it was not spoilt by the continual rain. It sits as a beacon against the old ‘Millmoor’ which is just across the road. It is also near the River Don which used to flow into the River Trent, next to which was where my two previous matches had been, but was diverted into the river Ouse in 1620.
I had seen Burton blow away my home team 6 nil in the FA Cup on Saturday so I was not sure what to expect.
Rotherham United FC 2 Burton Albion FC 2
Tuesday 3rd November 17.45 pm kick off, The Millers v The Brewers
New York Stadium, Rotherham, S60 1AH
English Football League Division 1, 15th v 20th.
Rotherham; Red shirts with white sleeves and white shorts with the goalkeeper in all fluorescent yellow.
Burton; All blue with the goalkeeper in all grey.
The first half was quite uneventful with both teams cancelling each other out, Burton threatening with long throws and Rotherham having most of the attacking play down the wings.
The second half changed all that with Burton coming out of their shells and pushing forward. They were rewarded when on 50 minutes, a corner from the left landed in the middle of the goal. Rotherhams keeper missed the ball as he came off his line and Kyran Lofthouse headed it into an open net for the Brewers.
As the game opened up with Rotherham being cheered forward by their fans, Burton could have gone further ahead on 58 minutes when a shot was cleared off the line. Burton went two ahead 5 minutes later when Rotherham’s Kian Spence slipped with the ball in the centre of their half and it went to Jake Beesley, he rolled it along the ground beyond a defender into the path of Tyrese Shade who shot across the diving keeper to put the ball in the right hand corner of the net. Burton couldn’t believe their luck but at the other end their luck failed them when Denzell Hall sprinting into the right side of the goal area hit a low cross to meet an unmarked colleague only for the ball to hit the diving leg of Toby Sibbick and fly past the inside of the post for a Rotherham goal.
With 20 minutes left Rotherham pushed forward, but didn’t look to have the cutting edge to level and leaving gaps in their defence allowed Burton to counter. The crowd greeted the 5 minutes of added time with joy as they had been continually frustrated by the away teams time wasting. With 4 of those minutes gone Rotherham’s corner from the left was met by unmarked Hamish Douglas whose bullet header hit the net.
The Rotherham team and crowd were joyous and saw it as a positive, and were buzzing with talk as they walked away. Burton too will be happy with the point and a display that should give them some momentum going forward.
The referee drew the ire of both supporters for some unusual decisions. Me too.
No chips, so on this miserable wet day I had a Steak Pukka pie and a coffee. More recently I have found Pukka pies to be dry and disappointing. It was either the preparation or something has changed because it was filled with steak and a hot tasty gravy.
Good idea that they sold the programs at the food/drinks kiosks.
payonthegate 