[themaclad]

Sydney, Paris, London and New York, wonderful places to start the New Year I have ben told, tomorrow I get tostart the New Yar in New York(Stadium) in that wonderful area of Britain commonly known as Rotherham.


There are worse places to be at the start of the year but not the most sexy places to go. Last time we rocked up there cruised to a 3-1 victory with McGeady giving their full back an absolute roasting, he was so bad we signed him, hello Darnell.
The Merry Millers have done reasonable well this season although they have tended to draw a lot of games, at the moment they are bottom of the form guide with two points from the last six games, on Saturday lost 1-0 to Bristol City although heroically nearly bagged a point even though they had two sent off, Jones and Towell. Reverse game ended 1 all and in fairness they didn't look that bad a side.
As we are in South Yorkshire there will no police to be seen they will be giving seasons greetings to Sir Cliff Richard.
Credit to the Millers on the price of this one costing me £20 less than my trip to Hillsborough 10 days ago.
Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers,[1] is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system, following its promotion from League One in the 2017–18 season.
Founded in 1925 as a merger between Rotherham Town (1899) and Rotherham County (1870),[2] the club's colours were initially yellow and black, but later evolved into the more traditional red and white.[3] Rotherham United play their home games at New York Stadium, a 12,021 capacity all-seater stadium, having previously played since its foundation at Millmoor for 101 years. Joining the Football League back in 1925, Rotherham spent the first 25 years of their time in Division Three North, the lowest level of the Football League, finally gaining promotion to Division Two at the end of the 1950–51 season.[4]
The Millers featured in the inaugural League Cup final in 1961,[5] and won the 1996 Football League Trophy and 1946 Football League North Cup. They also achieved two separate back to back promotions in 1999–2001 under Ronnie Moore and 2012–2014 under Steve Evans.
Again we will be down to the bare bones as our new signing whenever he does sign Josh Ginnelly cannot play tomorrow, be highly surprised if we are as good as we were on Saturday suspect this could be a very tired performance for both side, the name Maguire may make an appearance on the North End bench though

Ref Watch: Rotherham United
Premier League official Lee Probert takes charge of the Lilywhites’ local 2019 opening day clash against Rotherham United at the New York Stadium.
The experienced referee was in the middle for his second PNE game of the season, having officiated our 4-0 home win over Wigan Athletic at the beginning of October.

Prior to that, he was last in PR1 for the victory over Leeds United in March 2018, his only PNE game last season. Likewise, he took charge of just one North End fixture the previous year, away at Huddersfield Town in April 2017.

This is the Wiltshire referee’s 11th game in charge of North End since his joined the league’s lists back in the 2003/04 season; the last of which before that clash at the Terriers, being at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane in January 2015, when the Lilywhites won an FA Cup fourth round replay 3-1.
Over the years he has refereed European games and international matches, so is a very well-respected official, who this season have taken charge of 15 games, issuing 49 cautions and four red cards.

An interesting fact is that Lee was the referee when the Lilywhites played at QPR in February 2005 in the first of the modern day Gentry Day fixtures, former PNE skipper Chris Lucketti and David Nugent scoring in the 2-1 win at Loftus Road.

He will be assisted by Simon Beck and Andrew Garratt, whilst the fourth official for the fixture will be David Webb.

[Imre varadi]

yep a lovely place if you come from luton i suppose anyway good luck beating them will cement there bottom 3 place and hopefully send them spiraling back down into the league were they belong Because quiet frankly they get on ours nerves as we are there cup final twice a year and we dont even know it !

[themaclad]

Lots of people get on your nerves Imre and you've not even mentioned time wasting

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Manning recalled by QPR from his loan spell at Rotherham

[themaclad]

Rotherham United 2 Vaulks, Smith Preston North End 1 Nmecha

Rotherham United line-up: Rodak, Mattock, Vaulks, Ajayi, Wood ©, Palmer (Forde, 46), Taylor (Newell, 46), Williams, Smith, Wiles, Raggatt. Subs not used: Price, Yates, Hinds, Southern-Cooper.

PNE line-up: Rudd, Clarke ©, Hughes (Woods, 67), Ledson, Storey, Huntington, Barkhuizen, Johnson, Nmecha, Burke, Gallagher. Subs not used: Crowe, Fisher, Woods, Simpson, Baxter, O’Reilly, Walker.

Attendance: 9,077 (1,141 PNE fans)

Referee: Mr L Probert

This was a game we should have won by half time however missing a shed load of chances in the first half, we conceed on half time, the home side mahe two changes at the break bag a second and hang on for grim death after we reduced the arrears.
Arriving at the ground a full two hours before the start had a wander around the town, lots of closed down shops gave the impression of grimness, although the Town Hall looked a decent old fashioned building.
North End unchanged started well and looked like they had Rotherham for the taking, Barkhuizen twice through missed one and was brought down cynically by Palmer on the edge of the box, Burke mnissed two, too slow on the first occasion and Johnson also got into acres of space but his poor final ball wasted the opportunity. The Millers started to get into the game and Rudd had too make one smart save from Wiles tipping over a goal bound save, but it only seemed a matter of time until a goal arrived sadly for us on the stroke of half time it was the Millers that got it.
Tree kick just outside the penalty area, Rudd lined his wall up, Vaulks blasted the ball past it and Rudd into the net. Rudd should have done better but it went in at such a rate with a bit of late swerve. One down and this season we have not come from behind to win.
Two substitutes from the home side at the break helped them, they closed us down and did not allow us to play, played far better than they did in the first half and generally looked the side more likely to win it.
They doubled the lead when Johnson gave the ball away on the halfway line, Clarke left exposed the home winger bombed down the wing put in a great cross which just said head me in, Smith did just that. Within a couple on minutes we were back in the game as Nmecha pulled a goal back from about five yards.
Then it was a seige on the home goal Nmecha had one cleared off the line and there was nearly a comedy own goal but the home side survived and took the spoils. Disappointing but we were just not clinical enough in front of goal.
Rotherham assistant manager Richie Barker: "It was a vital three points and after looking at other results it was even more important.

"The togetherness was excellent, the organisation was okay in a patched-up team. We had a few square pegs in round holes so we are obviously delighted to get the three points but we are well aware we need to improve things.

"The performance wasn't great but they don't know that they're beat. They dig in when things are not going so well. The character is excellent.

"Our game-management towards the end was not entertaining, but year or so ago we might have lost that game."

Preston manager Alex Neil: "I was extremely frustrated but I couldn't tell my players they hadn't played well because it wasn't true. There was real frustration and disappointment because we spurned opportunities.

"Normally Rotherham are hard to create chances against but we created six by half-time. As a coach you know when your team has played well.

"Their goalkeeper getting man of the match tells you the story of the game. The simple fact is we didn't take the opportunities that we created. They went in knowing that they had not played well. They knew they had something to hang on to."