Millers And Hatters Play Out A Draw

Rotherham United 1 – 1 Stockport County
Odoffin (19)                             Barry 13


The last game of 2024 at the New York Stadium saw Rotherham United come back from one-down to get a draw.

A cautious start from both sides saw the visitors have the first shot in anger on eight minutes when a headed ball from Ibou Touray fall at the feet of Louie Barry who brought a good save from Millers’ ‘keeper Dillon Phillips. This was followed a minute later by Barry being the provider for Odin Bailey who saw the home defence block then clear his shot before Rotherham’s first chance on eleven minutes saw Jonson Clarke-Harris take a short free-kick to Joe Powell whose shot from distance was deflected wide. Two minutes later County took the lead after Touray found Barry in so much space that he was able to take his time before taking aim from the edge of the box and finding the back of the net. But six minutes later the Millers equalised after a mis-hit shot from Liam Kelly after a corner bounced up finding Hakeem Odoffin who headed in from close range. Yes, the Millers fans held their breath thinking, like the County fans, that he might have been offside but referee Leigh Doughty gave the goal and, ‘photo evidence doing the rounds at half—time showed that Haks was indeed onside when the ball was played. A few minutes later it might have been two for the Millers after Mallik Wilks got the ball to Clarke-Harris just outside the box the Millers skipper seeing his shot go over the crossbar. And it was Clarke-Harris again who got a good ball from Joe Rafferty only to see his shot blocked. At the other end a headed pass from Oliver Norwood fell to Isaac Olaofe his shot stopped by the Millers defence. There were a lot of niggly fouls, a lot of shirt pulling which the referee was ignoring before Zak Jules was shown the first yellow of the afternoon when Olaofe fell over in front of him. After a Kyle Knoyle cross found Kyle Wootton the visiting striker saw his header go wide before Wootton was booked for a challenge on Jules and a minute later a foul by Odoffin brought him the same fate. A shot from Olaofe was blocked before a foul on Mallik Wilks brought a yellow card for Callum Connolly. The resulting Joe Powell free-kick was headed wide by Odoffin. Clarke-Harris was the next to see yellow for a foul on Connolly Stockport’s free-kick coming to nothing. As the board went up for an extra two minutes a short free-kick to Joe Hungbo saw him twist to get the better of his marker before seeing his curling shot held by Ben Hinchliffe in the Stockport goal.

Stockport started the second-half with Jack Diamond on for Isaac Olaofe. County came close to re-taking the lead three minutes into the half when a cross from Ethan Pye found Callum Connolly who saw his shot from some thirty-five yards out hit the bottom of the upright and go out to safety. Louie Barry saw a shot saved by Dillon Phillips before a shot from Diamond was blocked by the Millers defence before another shot from Barry was well blocked by Hakeem Odoffin. A fast counterattack on the hour mark saw Connolly feed Kyle Wootton who sent his shot just past the post. A change for the hosts saw Andre Green replace Joe Hungbo before Louie Barry was stretchered off, Will Collar coming on in his place while Sam Hughes and Macauley Southam-Hales also came on for the visitors with Fraser Horsfall and Kyle Knoyle going the other way. Ten minutes of fouls and free-kicks brought the eighty minutes up and Mallik Wilks making way for Shaun McWilliams for the Millers and four minutes later Jack Holmes came on for Sam Nombe. It wasn’t until the fourth official held the board up for another seven minutes that the game came to life when Reece James sent a cross into the box for McWilliams who shot wide. A couple of attempts from the visitors from Oliver Norwood before he became provider for Connolly who saw his shot blocked before a shot from outside the box by Odin Bailey easy for Phillips to hold.

It was a point this afternoon in the early kick-off for each team which would settle better with the Stockport management than the home side. To be honest, after the second-half was all but dominated by the visitors, it is probably fair to say it’s a ‘good’ point. Some of our defending looked very kamikaze but it somehow mostly worked. It looked like some of our players tired half-way through the second-half, some looking to be playing through the pain barrier. Let’s hope any injury problems are sorted as we’ve two more games in six days.

Attendance – 10,194 – 2,068 noisy Stockport fans in the stands

Referee – Leigh Doughty