Millers v Potters – What The Stats Say

Rotherham United and Stoke City played out a two-all draw yesterday, The Potters scoring two goals in two minutes in the first half with The Millers coming back to get a point in the second half.

For me, the first twenty-five minutes of the first half went to the Millers. City scored on twenty-seven minutes and had the percentage of the rest of the half plus the opening ten minutes of the second half with the rest of that half belonging to Paul Warne’s men.

So I’m a bit bemused when the stats say – fifty-three per cent of possession went to the home team. I shake my head and wonder how that can possibly be?

The Millers had eight corners in the game which was double the home side’s while Stoke’s passing accuracy in an opponents half was sixty-three per cent to Rotherham’s sixty per cent.

Rotherham had sixteen shots at goal, seven of those being on target, to City’s four shots of which three were on target while Stoke made forty-two clearances to the Millers’ twelve (which, to me, shows which end the ball was in most).

All in all it was a fighting come back from the Millers. As the players came off at half-time those Rotherham fans that were left in the stands did encourage the Millers players – there were shouts of ‘come on Millers’, ‘keep at it’ and ‘don’t let your heads drop’. I’d like to think that, as much as the Gaffer’s half-time team talk, helped.

Stoke City				Rotherham United
Vokes (27), Clucas (29)				Smith (58), Crooks (74)
Butler				Rodak
Williams				Vyner
Martins Indi (Adam 87)				Mattock
Shawcross				Ihiekwe
Batth				Robertson
Allen				Ajayi
McClean				Taylor (Williams 68)
Etebo				Vaulks
Clucas				Towell (Crooks 58)
Vokes (Verlinden 87))				Forde (Newell 69)
Bojan (Afobe)				Smith
Substitutes
Federici				Price
Bauer				Wood
Adam				Crooks
Diouf				Newell
Verlinden				Wiles
Woods				Williams
Afobe				Vassell

Game Statistics
4	Goal attempts	16
3	On Target	7
4	Corners	8
9	Fouls	12
0	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
53	%	47