West Bromwich Albion 2 Rotherham United 1
Rodriguez 77 (pen) Robertson 50
Harper 79
Rotherham United’s fight to stay in the Championship ended on Saturday after defeat at The Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion despite taking a fiftieth minute lead.
The Millers started well getting an early corner from a Matt Crooks ball into the box and the first real effort of the game when Billy Jones and Anthony Forde combined to get the ball to Semi Ajayi at the near post who put his header just over the crossbar. A linesman’s flag on the quarter of an hour mark saved the Millers when Dwight Gayle got behind the Rotherham defence while at the other end a Forde ball in had to be headed out for a corner which Joe Newell took and found Clark Robertson only for his header to smack against the crossbar. A Chris Brunt free-kick was easy for Millers’ ‘keeper Marek Rodak while Robertson put a ball from Forde wide with half-an-hour gone. Joe Mattock was the first to see yellow for a poor challenge on Jay Rodriguez. Rodak had to be on his toes to stop a Gayle cross sneaking into the goal before Kieran Gibbs sent the ball to Brunt who skied the ball into the fans behind the goal. The visitors won another couple of corners before a Will Vaulks long throw saw Kyle Bartley rise above the Millers players skimming the ball towards his own goal with Craig Dawson managing to keep it out stood on his own goal line.
The Baggies came out the better of the sides in the first half with Mason Holgate sending a good ball to Stefan Johansen who tried his luck from distance only to see it hit his own player, Kieran Gibbs, going out for a goal kick. With five minutes gone Craig Dawson brought down Matt Crooks with Joe Newell’s free-kick finding the head of Clark Robertson who headed into the bottom left corner of the goal to give the visitors the lead sending the travelling fans wild. The hosts came straight back at the Millers and it was Robertson at the other end this time who put a good effort from Dwight Gayle over the bar followed by a Holgate shot going just wide. Michael Smith had a good chance to put Matt Crooks in but his pass was much too heavy before a good knock-down from Ahmed Hegazi was completely missed by Gayle who would have had the goal at his mercy. A foul on Johansen earned Billy Jones a yellow card with the Albion player being subbed a couple of minutes later when Matt Phillips replaced him. And it was Phillips who got past Anthony Forde not long afterwards and found Holgate who skied the ball over the crossbar when it was probably easier to score before a backtracking Marek Rodak did well to tip a shot from the same player over. Vaulks, who had been down having treatment ten minutes previously, couldn’t carry on with Richie Towell replacing him with twenty minutes to go. The Baggies were pressing for a goal and it came on seventy-seven minutes after a trailing leg by Smith saw Gayle end up on the floor in the area with Referee Rob Jones pointing to the penalty spot. Up stepped Rodriguez and made it one-all. Jacob Murphy was the next Baggies player to come off the bench this time for Holgate. Just two minutes after the first goal the hosts scored another after Akeem Harper was first to a loose ball and drilled home from distance for his first professional goal West Brom. Paul Warne sent on Ryan Williams and Kyle Vassell for Anthony Forde and Billy Jones. A Williams shot was blocked and fell to Vassell who saw his shot saved by Sam Johnstone in the West Brom goal followed by an equally good save at the other end from Rodak when one-on-one with Phillips. The Baggies penalty scorer Jay Rodriguez was subbed with Hal Robson-Kanu coming on in his place. A Newell corner found the head of Vassell but went over before Gayle, down the other end, sent a good ball in to Robson-Kanu who saw his shot go wide. In time added on Vassell got by his marker and tried his luck from some twenty-five yards out with Johnstone doing well to get down to it. In the final seconds of the game a shot from Newell was deflected onto the crossbar with Towell trying to get the ball in only to be stopped by the Baggies defence.
So that’s it. After a few twists and turns, a lot of hope turning to finger crossing and looking for black cats while avoiding ladders, the Millers now know they will start next season in League One. But, we have to remember what Yazz once said, ‘the only way is up’.
Referee – Rob Jones
Attendance – 24,534
Well that’s as predicted after the lack of spend at the last transfer window. We all knew what was going wrong and what needed to be done to fix things. However those in charge just didn’t provide the resources Paul Warne desperately needed to be competitive. Ok Warnes a good guy but he can’t yet walk on water. His team have worked hard and had they turned a mere couple of draws to wins we might have escaped the trapdoor. It’s been annoyingly close this season and better than our last relegation stats.
This justifies the focus on the Board of directors who don’t seem to care which division we are in. The loss of millions of pounds in tv revenue EFL share out etc just hasn’t seemed to matter. On the other hand our fan base is far too low to allow spending under financial fair play rules. These rules have proved a joke with no level playing field ever likely and The penalties applied are far from robust.
Modern Football is run by accountants as battles withe inland revenue have shown at many clubs throughout the leagues. This prevents clubs such as ours from competing for better players as their expectations always seem to exceed our ability to provide. The so called good person test applied by Warne is a joke really. It’s an excuse to bring in Clones or maybe I should say Clowns. The approach was successful under Revie at Leeds but not sustainable when Clough arrived. Both were great managers but with different styles. Clearly the combination of Warne’s style and a limited budget doesn’t fit the Championship. Let’s hope the style works in division 1.
I still feel an experienced solid plain speaking Director of football is needed to ensure that the club has a voice and that contacts can be used to our advantage. It’s certain many transfer deals originate over a post match boardroom brandy. I would be surprised if Tony Stewart has the football prowess as. Such as Milan Manderic or the perseverance of Barry Fry.
We definitely could be a bigger club but we will lose support again to the promoted local rivals as we start in league 1 with 7000 season ticket holders and 300 in the away end.
PLEASE feel free to comment. UTM.
I agree with a lot of what you say here Bry and thanks for your comments. I think the ‘clowns’ reference is a little harsh, and although the ‘nice boys’ we have are really lovely lads how often are we thinking back to the days of Tony Towner, Ray Mielczarek, Trevor Swift, Tony Grealish etc who might also have been nice boys but not particularly on a football pitch. I’m not saying the lads aren’t fighters but they lack that bit of something that comes with a nitty gritty side – though I wouldn’t want a team of thugs, I do often hear myself saying ‘get stuck in’. I’m never sure what a Director of Football does for a club? Does he come down to training and, as the title suggests, ‘directs football’? Does he do it from an office? Or, as you say, via boardroom meetings? If we were to employ someone in that role who would it be?
Well it’s no surprise the millers have been relegated back to league 1! Let’s hope they do us all a big big favour and stay there, we cannot compete on a financial footing in the championship, same old tired rhetoric spouted out by Mr Stewart and calamity Warne about been competitive its just a load of bull shit and its a con to the paying public, let’s hope calamity moves on is good human beings band of brothers mentallity came crashing around him.
I think a lot of us thought, last season, that we’d probably gone up too early Stuart. Then again, we should have learned by the experience.
well caz not unexpected same old problem score first and lose .I pick up a paper and warne wants a goal getting striker wrong what we need is ball stopping defenders we have some good players but the defenced does not work well together all the tme its defenders warne wants as a priority and drop the silly idea of good human beings and get good footballers
Certainly we’ve got to learn to defend a lead, catman. They tell me you defend from the front – if that’s right then it’s something we desperately need to learn.
i dont agree with defending from the front.all the best rotherham teams ive seen have been built on a strong defence we have not got a good defence goal against proves it we dont have dominant consistant centre half liike the good old teams
Have been saying for ages that we need a good old fashioned centre half – not sure they still have them though.