 |
|
 |
| ROTHERHAM UNITED V COVENTRY CITY City's fourth sortee of the season to that land of brass bands, whippets and coalmines (oops they have all been closed) commonly known as Yorkshire. The latest leg of our Yorkshire Explorer tour saw the Sky Blues arrive in Rotherham for the first time in a competitive game since 1987 (although City did win a pre-season friendly there in the early 1990's). I'd forgotten what a hole Millmoor actually is, nestled amongst scrap yards with it's away end stuck down an entry. The only change since my last visit was that the away end has now seats bolted onto the terrace With Nilsson now fully in charge of the Sky Blues (did we really expect Richardson and his cronies to find the money for a new manager.backroom staff and players when they could give the job to somebody already on the pay-roll. I think not) Talking of Nilsson, it will be interesting to see what will happen if the current regime are replaced. The aforementioned Swede opted to bring back Youseff Safri after his one game suspension in place of Laurent Delorge but kept the rest of the side that beat Walsall. The decision is bring back the Moroccan was proved right as he was clearly the best player in a poor opening period. The Sky Blues best chance fell to Lee Hughes in the 7th minute, who was set up by Mo Konjic for a one on one with Millers keeper Pollitt but the Brummie fired wide of the goal and did not looked bothered that he had missed a sitter. Rotherham who are undergoing a resurgence of form, relied heavily on the off-side trap and falling over to get free kicks to thwart City's attack. Not surprisingly, Lee Hughes consistently failed to read the game and was caught off-side the most of the City's forwards. It was one of these numerous free-kicks awarded to the home side by referee Mike Dean that saw Hedman making a superb diving save to his left to tip over a Paul Hurst effort. In the 38th minute,Safri shot low from 20 yards,Pollitt could not hold it and the ball squirmed out for a corner. Five minutes later, Safri got in a good position but saw his shot blocked for another corner. Just before the interval, Hedman made another good save from an Alan Lee header to keep City level. The mood amongst the 1,000 plus City support changed during the second period, from "we should be beating these easily" to "we are crap", as the Sky Blues offered very little in the second period. With Lee Hughes and Bothroyd struggling to come to terms with the offside trap and the physicalness of Rotherham's gritty defending, City only managed three efforts on goal with a 46th minute from Thompson well over,a harmless Chippo shot straight at Pollitt in the 60th minute and a Bothroyd effort which flew across the goalmouth ten minutes later and was gathered by the Millers custodian. During one Rotherham attack. the ball had gone out for a throw-in when Monkhouse ran into Shaw and pole-axed him. Shaw got up and pushed Monkhouse over in an act of retaliation. Thankfully as the ball was technically out of play, the referee only warned Shaw about his future conduct. One goal would have won it but as the game wore on it looked more likely that the home side would be picking up their points. In the 77th minute, Andy Monkhouse raced all the way through down the left hand side after he caught Richard Shaw napping, but he blasted the ball high over Hedman's bar. Nine minutes from time, Monkhouse again managed to waltz through a static Sky Blues defence but panicked and shot wide when he really should have netted. And so it ended in a disappointing draw with the home fans in the meagre gate of 6,582 far happier with their team's performance than those who made the journey up the M1. Had City won, then they would have been in third place and breathing down the neck of Wolves, but not having a striker who wants to play and can find the net on a very frequent basis means that City may have to set their sights on snatching a play-off place rather than automatic promotion. TEAM 13 Hedman,5 Shaw,3 Hall,6 Breen,22 Konjic,11 Chippo (28 Delorge 66),27 Safri,7 Thompson,8 Carsley,9 Hughes,21 Bothroyd SNU 30 Goram,14 Quinn,25 Martinez,2 Edworthy RATINGS 13 Hedman 7/10 A couple of good saves, couple of flaps 5 Shaw 5/10 Caught napping far too often 3 Hall 5/10 Slow at times and dodgy at others 6 Breen 7/10 Breen again led by example and one of the better players yet again 22 Konjic 7/10 Reasonable game for Mo 11 Chippo 7/10 Tried hard and linked well with Safri 27 Safri 8/10 Excellent first half and still battled in second despite looking tired 7 Thompson 7/10 Thommo did not get much service but did his best to create chances 9 Hughes 4/10 Unable to read the game,inept in front of goal putting it politely 21 Bothroyd 5/10 Marked out of the game, should have been replaced by Martinez 28 Delorge 7/10 Tried to get forward |