Saturday 27th August 2022
EFL Championship
At the New York Stadium
Rotherham United (1) 2
Richard Wood 28, 71
Birmingham City (0) 0
Attendance: 11,027 (inc. 2,275 away fans)
Point and hope picture gallery: Click HERE
Rotherham United:
Viktor Johansson, Grant Hall, Richard Wood (C), Cameron Humphreys (Wes Harding 49), Dan Barlaser, Brooke Norton-Cuffy, Ben Wiles, Ollie Rathbone (Scott High 75), Cohen Bramall (Shane Ferguson 53), Chiedozie Ogbene, Conor Washington (Tom Eaves 75).
Unused subs - Josh Vickers, Georgie Kelly, Jamie Lindsay.
Birmingham City:
John Ruddy, Dion Sanderson, Marc Roberts, Auston Trusty, Maxime Colin (Jordan Graham 46), Jordan James (Ryan Stirk 67), Juninho Bacuna (Jobe Bellingham 83), George Hall (Gary Gardner 68), Josh Williams, Scott Hogan, Troy Deeney (C) (Sam Cosgrove 67).
Unused subs - Neil Etheridge, Alfie Chang.
The New York Stadium has now been open for business (COVID restrictions excepted) for ten whole years. By heck, where does the time go!?
On my inaugural trip to this salubrious corner of South Yorkshire, almost a decade ago, I afforded this relatively new ground the requisite: 'First time that I've ever visited here', actual factual historical blog treatment. I recall that the post received an inordinate amount of views at the time. Most likely because of people typing the words pictures of cocks into their internet search engine of choice and coming across the blog by accident, so to speak, as opposed to anybody actually wanting to read my long winded, self indulgent, bullshit reportage, with added football content.
Bringing things right up to date: an understrength Rotherham United XI were knocked out of the League Cup at the New York Stadium by League One side Morecambe in midweek, But as of 3PM this afternoon, the Millers were still one of only four teams to have remained unbeaten in the Championship so far this term, albeit that the current season is only a few weeks old.
Blues last two outings, from which they picked up just a solitary point from back-to-back home games, were also against two of those unbeaten sides: Watford and Wigan Athletic.
Elsewhere, Bristol City's 2-0 win over Cardiff City last Sunday saw the Robins move up the Championship table to seventh, which nudged Birmingham City down to nineteenth.
But, it's still early days and John Eustace's side went into today's game, still only three points behind the early season pacesetters who are currently jockeying for position in the play-off berths. And in spite of an indifferent start to their new campaign )W1 D2 L2), Blues went into today's game just one point behind today's hosts. Of course, they were also only two points above the bottom three as well. But hey! Let's not dwell on that particular statistic too much.
So, buckle up and hold on tight thrill-seekers, as I bring you a completely impartial eye-witness overview of this afternoon's heavyweight bout between... in the red corner: the current Papa Johns Trophy holders. And in the blue corner: the 2022 Bass Charity Vase winners, who, I might add, were very recently (if only briefly) at the the very top of the Championship themselves, after they had connivingly put Huddersfield Town to the sword at St. Andtrew's, earlier this month.
Or, as some of you other scribes of a less flamboyant disposition might also call this eagerly anticipated encounter: fourteenth v nineteenth in the second tier of English football,
As the game got underway only one of these two sides looked interested in living up to all of the hype and enthusiasm I've tried to convey in my introduction thus far. Alas, despite having the backing of an initially noisy and completely sold-out away end, trying to lift them, that team definitely wasn't the one wearing royal blue. The Millers might only have had 8752 supporters present in their 12,000 ("My garden shed is bigger than this") capacity stadium. But there is an old adage that says, size isn't everything, it's how you used what you've got that matters.
Rotherham set out their stall to win the game, using everything they've got at their disposal, while frustrating Blues and, at times, running the clock down when the opportunity arose. But there is no disputing the fact, that on the day, Rotherham were the better side and deserved the win and, it must be said: they looked impressive when they broke forward at speed through a worryingly disjointed looking Blues side.
Once again, the match officials didn't cover themselves in any glory, but that is the norm for the Championship these days... and in no way should be used as an excuse for the lacklustre visitors to hide behind.
The hosts won fairly and squarely.
And similarly, Blues got exactly what they deserved too.
Besides that, lets face facts here: both teams had to contend with the stop/start nature of the game, while the whistle-happy referee seemed, at times, to be relishing the fact that he was creating such a frustrating spectacle.
Prior to the game, Paul Warne, the Millers manager, alluded to several incidents from over the past few weeks that strongly suggested he had studied footage of Blues recent performances. So no doubt he'd have seen Troy Deeney's pivotal and deep laying role in the recent credible draw against Watford. Hence, when the visitors started this afternoon with a similar shape and game plan to the one that they had employed successfully against the Hornets again, their captain was marked very closely, at times by more than one Millers player and not allowed any breathing space to impose himself on the game whatsoever.
Paul Ince, the Reading manager had complained recently (straight after the Royals had been beaten convincingly at the Don Valley Stadium); that his side had been bullied out of the game (something that I'd have thought he was probably something of an authority on, given the often 'competitive' and uncompromising nature of his own playing career). And to a certain extent, I could see today where he had been coming from. Though I'd probably use the words: Rotherham are robust in the challenge and don't allow the opposition any time to whatsoever settle on the ball, as opposed to calling them bullies. Hard bloody work and tackling properly are not to be sniffed at. When the going gets tough n' all that.
The Millers, who've now made their best start ever to a any season that they've ever spent in the second tier, know their own strengths (and weaknesses) and seem hell-bent on preserving their Championship status this time around, after years of being a yo-yo club. It would be nice to think that Birmingham's players might start displaying a similar attitude towards keeping away from what is fast becoming their annual tradition of struggling at the wrong end of the table yet again too.
A goal in each half by the hosts thirty-seven year old captain Richard Wood, were enough to pack Blues back off down the M1 sans any goals or points... and though that nice Mr Eustace said that his team had been practising defending set-pieces this week, in readiness for their visit to south Yorkshire, it was their failure to deal with two deliveries into the box from outside the area that was to prove to be the visitors undoing.
Blues weren't getting into the game at all and it took the efforts of central defender Dion Sanderson battling forward to give them any kind of real threat going forwards.
If truth be told, Birmingham will have been relieved to have reached the half-time break just a goal behind. In fact their manager said as much when he spoke to the press after the game.
And here it all is: Scott Hogan got free on the right, shrugged off a challenge and cut inside, his attempted shot (or misdirected cross to Deeney) was pushed away by Viktor Johansson and rolled towards Juninho Bacuna, who uncharacteristically showed a poor touch and thumped the ball directly to the guy sat next to me in row M.
Marc Roberts had a header saved and Hogan also had a late chance, that he hooked wide of the post from twelve yards out. The visitors did launch numerous high balls into Rotherham's area, but the home defence dealt with that kind of thing more comfortably than the misfiring visitors.
Roberts, back in the side today after being out injured, felled Chiedozie Ogbene as he ran into Blues area, giving Gavin Ward no option but to blow up and award a penalty. But Ruddy blocked Barlaser's kick with his foot as he dived to his left and Blues were given an unexpected platform to build on. But the prospect of any kind of an unlikely contact fizzled out just moments later, when Barlaser picked up the ball on the right thirty yards away from the area and hoofed a dipping delivery towards the right hand post, Conor Washington got the faintest off touches but Wood forced the ball over the line by throwing himself at the ball which ended up in the back of the net via his midriff, in spite of Birmingham's appeals for a handball.
The hosts saw the game out comfortably while a large number of the away supporters made an early start to their journey home.
In his post match interview, Warne said: "I thought we were really good from the start. I can't have many complaints. We caused Birmingham a lot of problems. I don't think many people could leave the stadium and not think we were deserved winners."
Personally I can't imagine that anybody whatsoever who'd been present at the game would disagree with the sentiment of that final sentence.
Rob Staton, a local radio presenter summed up the afternoon thus: "Birmingham were awful, Rotherham were excellent", which was very similar to a text message that I'd just sent my mate after the final whistle: "Rotherham were quite good today, in spells, but Blues were f*cking garbage! Need to recruit before transfer window slams shut!". Ever the optimist, eh!?
This comfortable win saw Rotherham climb to fifth in the table, while home defeats for both Watford and Wigan, mean that the Millers are now one of just two unbeaten sides in the Championship this season (along with Preston North End).
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| The sentiment is all well and good. But it's out on the pitch that Blues need to start being battlers. |
As a consequence of their lacklustre showing this afternoon, Blues are now twenty-first in the table, level on (five) points with Swansea City in twenty-second, but with a 'superior' goal difference of minus three against the Swans minus five. Huddersfield Town in twenty-third have four points.
It is perhaps worth noting that there is only a three-point difference between fifth and twentieth place and that the entire division is still in a state of flux, But Blues would do well to stay in touch by raising their game as promotion hopefuls Norwich City visit St. Andrew's on Tuesday night, before John Eustace's side travel to the aforementioned Preston North End next weekend. Rotherham for their part, are away at Sunderland on Wednesday and entertain Watford at the New York Stadium three days later.
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| Ciao South Yorkshire |
