Valentines Day Comes Early

Rotherham fans made their way down the Sheffield parkway, cutting across the steel city, travelling in their thousands to Hillsborough Stadium. However, they could have been forgiven for thinking they’d made a wrong turn and ended up in a farmers field, such was the state of the pitch of the Owls. 

The pitch would play such a big part in the events that were to unfold this afternoon.

Prior to kick off both teams were in fine form. Wednesday were on a run of 4 successive wins which all included clean sheets. The Millers were also in similar form to their South Yorkshire counterparts, 5 wins from 5 and 5 clean sheets in a row. The Owls lined up with a 3-5-2 formation, with their midfield maestro Luongo sitting in the middle of the park waiting to pull the strings. The Millers made two changes from their 1-0 win over Wimbledon with skipper Richard Wood coming in for Mattock and Ladapo replacing the injured Will Grigg.

The game started with the blistering pace you would expect from a derby game with both teams having well worked chances. However, it was the Owls who gained the upper hand and settled in to the game much quicker than their South Yorkshire rivals. Forcing Josh Vickers in the Rotherham goal into save after save. The Millers found it difficult to settle into the game and would have thought themselves lucky to go into the break level. The pitch definitely got to the Millers and their normal build up play was being heavily interrupted by the mud affecting the flow of the ball. Wednesday forced attack after attack and thought they had taken the lead when a former Miller, Jack Hunt, smashed the ball past a helpless Vickers. However, their joy was to be short lived as the linesman’s flag was high in the air before the ball hit the back of the net. Relief for Rotherham.

Cue the half time change that saw Ollie Rathbone replace Jamie Lindsay. The Millers were clearly lacking his energy in midfield and Warne didn’t want to waste any more time. The change seemed to have the desired affects as the Millers were much more of an attacking threat. On 59 minutes, the Millers finally had their breakthrough and it came through the exiled striker Freddie Ladapo. Rotherham had scored 18 goals this season from set pieces and it’s this weapon that forced the opening goal. The referee controversially gave a corner for the Millers when the ball had seemingly not gone out of play. Dan Barlaser drilled ball went towards the back post where it was met by the head of Ben Wiles. As the ball made its way goalwards, Ladapo was on hand to divert it past the helpless Peacock-Farrel in the Wednesday goal, sending the 3,500 travelling Millers into hysteria! 1-0 Rotherham.

Sheffield Wednesday weren’t to be outdone and began trying to get back into the game. Chieo Ogbene was drawn into a foul right on the edge of the Millers box, giving Barry Bannan a chance to bring the Owls level. The Scottish international drilled his free-kick low and hard, which again forced Vickers into another smart stop. The game was then put out of reach of the team from S6 as the Millers doubled their lead. Dan Barlaser was again at the heart of the Rotherham attack, as he floated a sumptuous ball into the Wednesday box. A small scramble ended at the feet of Ihiekwe, who laid the ball off for Michael Smith. Smith made no mistake curling a beautiful ball into the top corner. Anarchy ensued in the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough! Three thousand ecstatic Rotherham fans raising the roof, happily seeing their team take three points away from their nearest rivals! 

Three points well earned, if maybe not quite deserved. The fans didn’t care…  

“We’re Rotherham United, we’re top of the league”

Rotherham United Team Ratings: Vickers 8, Harding 7, Ihiekwe 8, Wood 9, Ogbene 7, Lindsay 6, Barlaser 7, Wiles 6, Ferguson 7, Smith 7, Ladapo 6. Subs: Mattock 6 (for Ladapo 87), Rathbone 7 (for Lindsay 45), Osei-Tutu 6 (for Ferguson 79)