[jjamez]

Premier League Huddersfield Town come up against another familliar face in the form of recently relegated league one side Rotherham United.

The two sides met last season in the Championship, but saw their seasons go in two very different directions, one took the low road down to Wembley, the other took a different low road to the league below. The two have also enjoyed different starts the season, one is unbeaten and are joint top of their league the other has had a rather bitty start and are sitting in the lower mid table region of their league. Have a wild guess at which is which...

I'm sure you know which is which. Rotherhams start has been indifferent, starting their campaign off with a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Fleetwood Town before moving onto the first round of the Carabooboo cup where they scraped past Lincoln 2-1. They were handed this glamourous tie as a reward and celebrated in style against Southend, running out 5-0 winners, On loan striker Kiefer 'Sutherland' Moore scored a first half hattrick in the process. A bit more than 24 hours later the side lost on penalties in the pointless trophy against Manchester City Infants. The Millers come into the game on the back of a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Peterborough, or something like that, they dont like us anyway.



In regards to transfers, Rotherham have had a rather busy summer with 10 players joining them as they try to bounce back to the Championship at the first time of asking.

Amongst those that have joined the millers include the afore mentioned Kiefer Moore, who joined on loan from Ipswich Town. He joined Ipswich last season, but found the step up to the Championship a bit too much.

Another man to join them is former MK Dons and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Darren Potter as well as full back Shaun Cummings from Milwall and striker Jamie Proctor from Bolton. A lot of their transfers seem rather similar to how we used to do it back in league one and upon arrival to the Championship. It feels a lot different being able to spend more money than we've ever thought possible and long may it continue!



On the other side, 11 players have departed the club, the majority of whom have left as free agents, with players including former Nottingham Forest and Southampton striker Dexter Blackstock and former Spurs Full back Stephen Kelly. But the major departure comes in the form of former town 'favorite' Danny Ward, who left to join former Town manager Neil Warnock at Cardiff City, joining fellow ex town men Anthony Pilkington, Lee Peltier and Sean Morrison.



The game on Wednesday will have a completely different feel to the electric vibe from Sunday. Only three stands will be open, the Kilner Bank stand will be closed for the tie, and one would imagine that it will have a little more of a exhibition game feel to it. Tickets are priced at £12 for the Riverside Upper, £10 Riverside lower and £8 for the Fantastic Media stand.

Last season Rotherham finished rock bottom in the league, but there were many teams who played poorer football than they, the two meetings between the sides last season were tight affairs with Town coming out on top on both occasions.

The first meeting between the sides came in September, where Elias Kachunga got Town off to a flyier, before former Town man Ward poked past Ward... before wantaway striker Nahki Wells notched a second goal before half time, it was another standard Town performance where they came out on the right side of a 2-1 result.



The second meeting came at the New York Stadium, where Town edged the fixture 3-2, an injury time winner coming from the boot of prolific goalscorer Tommy Smith. Twice the home side took the lead through goals from Semi Ajayi and Tom Adeyemi, but Joe Lolley and Elias Kachunga restored parity before Smith struck the winning blow.



Wednesday night could see Town make a number of changes, with the likes Joel Coleman, Michael Hefele, Scott Malone and Danny Williams making their first starts of the season and getting valuable game time under their belts. The game could also see Depoitre return to the side following his strange omission on Sunday, whilst young hopefulls Jordan Williams and Ramarni Edmonds Green may also get a spot in the squad.

For me, this could be a decent chance to get to Wembley again, but emphasis has got to be on the league this season, regardless of the start we've had, we have to ensure that we are safe come May and needless injuries would not help the cause.

Therefore, my team would be

Coleman
Smith, Hefele, J Williams/Green Malone
D Williams, Whitehead/Booty
Quaner, Lolley, Rajiv
Depoitre

with a bench consisting of some of the younger lads along with the likes of Kachunga, Mounie and Ince should they be required, I'd still suggest that Town would come out on top.

[theo_luddite]

Danny Ward signs for Cardiff - Cardiff go top of the Chamionship. A coincidence surely? Is he really that good, especially coming off the bench?

Between them and Bury they could probably field a full starting 11 of ex Town players.

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Good thread by the way jjamez - that's got at least twice as much intersting stuff in it as all the teams have interest in this competition, other than the Wemberlee final.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, jjamez.

Have you seen when and where the draw for the next round is taking place?
In Beijing and at what we call 4:15 in the morning.
How long before something daft like the Final gets played over there? The Chinese are having a worrying amount of influence on British football.

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As for the team, I'd rest all those who are going off on international duty next week and keep the rest unchanged.

[Lord Snooty]

Referee tonight; Mr Peter Bankes of Merseyside.

[theo_luddite]

Good start

[theo_luddite]

Better start to the 2nd half

[Amelia Chaffinch]

In parts we were a different class but Rotherham weren't mugs and we were lucky to win.

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I think Rafa and Newcastle are up the creek if they carry on like they're doing. 3-2 down against Forest.

[Lord Snooty]

Well it was a struggle, but a win's a win.

I don't think anybody who played has a right to shout at the manager's door, I should be starting on Saturday. Depoitre looked good, the burly, bustling centre forward we were promised, but didn't look good enough to displace Mounie.
Malone looked alright, but Lowe has been awesome in the league matches, so he's gonna have to wait. Danny Williams had a good match, but he won't take Billing's place on this showing because it was the young Dane's introduction at half time that swung the match in our favour. Possibly man of the match, despite only playing half of it.
Young Jordan Williams looked good as deputy for Tommy Smith, but it looks like this will be a one off as Wagz said after the game he's looking to get him a loan move.
Hef and Whitehead at centre back though. Wasn't happy.

As for Rotherham, they are just carrying on from last season and having absolutely no good luck whatsoever. The penalty was definitely one, a clear shirt pull on Depoitre, but a lot of refs wouldn't have given it. And the disallowed goal, same again, a lot of refs wouldn't have seen the foul on Hef. I didn't. And the two bad misses. Coleman made up for his mistake for the early goal with a miraculous save pulling the ball back from what looked like over the line to me. And then another good save from Coleman in the last minute which the Rotherham lad blasted wide.  

So off we go, back down to the Palace.

[EastLondonTerrier]

How on earth did we win that game? Is this what being a big shot premier league team that gets all the luck feels like?

[WakeyTerrier]

Has to be said Rotherham were very unlucky last night.

Coleman, shocker for the Rotherham goal but made up for his mistake in the second half with a couple of great saves.
Defence, Hefele....awful. Whitehead somehow gets a foul in the second half when I was thinking the ref could quite easily have given it the other and produce a red card.
We looked weak in wide areas of midfield, the young lad bombing on from Right back isn't good enough(yet!) we desperately missed the attacking enthusiasm on both wings last night.
Billing looked a world beater out on that pitch compared to everybody else.

Palace away in the next round......just what we didn't want.
I can get there and back(Wakey- KX) for £19 but a half decent hotel is about another £140. Might have to look at getting the 23:30 rattler back, but it doesn't leave much in the way of spare time, God forbid ET or pens!