DPL vs Rotherham Utd

4.1 to the mighty Ziggers. Rowe first goal. Crowd of 12345.

2-1 Rotherham
rowe to score
10500 crowd

With only Marquis up front it looked like being an attritional afternoon, indeed a typical derby. At the end of the first half I suspect that there were few watching on the Rovers side who wouldn't have settled for a draw as Rotherham were by far the better side in attack. In the second half we actually had a few chances to get shots on goal but these were largely spurned in favour of one more touch or a pointless pass or worse, a back pass. So frustrating, and more so when playing a better side. The second half goal that broke the deadlock came from a brilliant fast break down the left by Kongolo which, for once stretched the Miller's defence. As MoM Balir motored past him on the outside Rodders flighted in a brilliant cross to the near post that the defender and Marquis appeared to meet together before it hit the net. Despite huge pressure it looked like a win for us but in the last minute of injury time the ball was played into our penalty area and for the first time our defence couldn't get it under control or away and Rotherham got the equaliser. I haven't seen the match stats but I suspect they had mnore chances. Late equalisers are hard to take but on balance I think a draw was a fair result. Good team performance by Rovers.

Thanks albi

Albi: the TV coverage bears out your analysis. Towards the end they chose not to continue to attack, but to try to conserve their lead by holding the ball up in the Rotherham half. Well-executed, this could have been a good plan and the conservative option is sensible, but they rather blundered didn't they?

Having seen the plan prove only partially effective because they kept losing the ball, they were clearly alarmed every time the opposition broke out into all-out attack. So they became more and more nervous and made the opposition confident so the equaliser was almost inevitable.

I cannot help thinking that if they are to play for time at this juncture they need to improve their ability to do so and build belief that they will do it successfully.

They had kept Rotherham at bay reasonably comfortably by just playing their normal game up to about 88 minutes and only then switched to twitchy time-wasting and in a sense were the authors of their own downfall.

Only one slight thing wrong albie, the Kongolo run and cross was from the right.
Overall Rotherham were by far better than us in the first half and should have been ahead.
We shaded things in the second half but again, failed to create clear cut chances.
Rowe had a great chance to score late on but chose to pass to a guarded Marquis instead.
Two clear pen shouts for us, for a push on JM and the second after his shot was clearly blocked by a defenders arm which prevented it from getting through to the goal.
The ref had a decent enough game but got those two game changing big decisions wrong.
Is it a coincidence that once more, after Copps goes off we concede a late goal?
To be fair, a draw was a fair result today and only some heroic last ditch bodies on the line blocks prevented us from losing.
Still, another point is on the board as we hope to reach the magical fifty.

You would think that at my age I would know my right from my left........

Bet you weren’t in the army then.

Watching the extended highlights it was interesting to see the penalty calls. I've seen hand ball given for far more dubious events (such as NI against Switzerland!). It seems it was "accidental", but that has not helped the Rovers in the past. However, under the current rules, he had his arm out that stopped a goal bound ball. I assume if the ref had given a penalty it would have been a red card - or have they changed that rule as they have with the last man tackle?
As far as Marquis is concerned, he was getting his shirt pulled and then was bundled over. However, a lot of the goes on and is not punished, although the Premier League seems to be tightening up on this.

The interpretation of the penalty Law is a mess. The comment including the phrase “seen them given” is frequently heard and is regarded as a satisfactory conclusion but how can it be? Here we have the most serious game-changing event either resulting in an award or summarily ignored and in the event of simulation, a yellow card.

The Law as it now stands is elaborately framed presumably to promote fairness, but in the end it tends to punish the marginal incidents which are not all deliberate which cannot be fair, whilst failing to pick up such borderline offences which are deliberate.

Back to the match though and perhaps I am too harsh a critic.

However two things are becoming increasingly obvious to me.
1.The degree of application through high fitness levels and the ability of most of the L1 teams to press hard and harass for 90 minutes whereas in the Saunders promotion season I don’t think we saw this at this level.
2.Our weakness at coping with such tactics; Wimbledon was the prime example. We can shape good moves, but we have to be able to operate against sustained pressure and we don’t do it very well.

The results of the DPL were disappointing. Only Micky got the draw and only BVZ (who might have had the advantage of seeing the massing of the large crowd, but it’s perfectly legal anyway!) got the attendance – dare I say – in the same ball-park. So we scored 7 points collectively.

Rotherham 1--1 (o.g.) 12,481
………………..….Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo ………… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 61 ……. 61
PDXMickey ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 53 ……. 56
Yorks Lad …….. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 40 ……. 40
BVZ. ……..…….. 4 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 4 ……. 55 ……. 59
Crazy …….……… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 49 ……. 49
Uthred …….…… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 67 ……. 67
Mooligan …..…. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 59 ……. 59
King Chmprr …. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 43 ……. 43
Small Azza ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 50 ……. 50
Aussie Lad. ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …… 0 …….. 5 ……… 5
Azza ……..….…… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 47 ….. 47
Cheltenham …. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……… 0
Nookie ……….… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 6 ….…… 6
Selby …….……… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …... 0 ……. 44 ……. 44
…………. ………. 4 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 7 ……. 579 ….. 586