We got the win we so badly needed and we deserved it after an improved all round performance. New boy Jobe gave us a dose of what’s to come.
BEFORE
I'm not too despondent despite our poor start to the season but we clearly need to up our game in all departments and get something from this afternoon's match. I've just looked at the league table for the first time this season and saw that Rotherham are one place above us at the wrong end of the table, having managed a draw. I haven't heard any news about today’s starting eleven but it certainly sounds like Pritchard is on his way out and I’ll be sad to see him go as he can really be effective when he comes on as a sub. I wouldn’t like Batth to leave either but we’ll just have to wait and see who comes in and goes out. I’m in London and haven’t heard about any of the London Branch gathering to watch the game so I’ll be listening on SAFSEE. Match prediction: 2-1 to us.
When I got the team-news around 2.00, there were no changes in the starting line-up from the Preston match but Gooch was on the bench and Rigg wasn’t. Pritchard and Batth were also subs.
THE MATCH
I got the match online and our fans were in very good voice just before kick-off. We started well and did most of the attacking in the opening ten minutes without really threatening the Rotherham goal. Cirkin received an early yellow for a tug. There were sounds of grumbling from the home fans and commentator Benno said that our attacks were too slow and that we weren’t making runs and getting behind them. Rotherham were playing with a high line and sounding comfortable so a goal seemed a long way off. In the 20th minute Rotherham took the lead with a well-worked move that culminated with Odoffin shooting under Patterson from the right of the box. Instead of capitulating we were almost immediately back in the game when Jobe headed home from close range from a Neil headed pass.
There was a delay of a few minutes as Odoffin went down injured and was eventually replaced by McGuckin. We’d upped our pace at last and won a free-kick just to the right of their box for which Bramall got a yellow. It came to nothing but it sounded like we had more life in our play and our fans had certainly livened up. In the thirty-eighth minute we put together our best move so far when Jobe and Neil combined to feed Clarke but his shot went just over. We won the first corner of the game with a minute or two to the break but we wasted it. Ekwah had a good low shot but Johansson had it well covered. Ekwah’s certainly not afraid to have a stab when he can. I was expecting a fair bit of stoppage-time with that injury and four minutes were duly announced. It remained 1-1 as the half-time whistle went and it hadn’t been a classic by any means but at least we’d up the pace for a while and got back on level terms. Neither goalie had had much to do but the match was still very winnable.
There’d been no further changes as we kicked off again. After five minutes or so we forced Johansson into a save of sorts and the momentum was with us. Next thing we were ahead when Dack pulled the ball back for Jobe and he calmly struck it into the bottom-right corner for his second of the game. The match was ours to lose but I fancied us to get another goal. We’d upped the pace once more and Cirkin and Clarke were causing problems down our left culminating in a second corner. The hour-mark came and went and we continued to sound the most likely to score though Rotherham were also threatening on their occasional foray upfield. I wondered if we’d see Pritchard on before long. Rotherham made a double switch, swapping Hugill and Green for forwards Kayode and Eaves so they were going for goals. Jobe got a yellow for a foul to cloud his day a bit.
With twenty minutes on the clock we still hadn’t made any changes but we were clocking up the corners. Roberts was down injured for a while and finally Pritchard came on to replace him, to very loud applause. Roberts walked off at any rate so hopefully it’s nothing too serious. Ten minutes to go and unless we did something daft, three points were hovering not far ahead of us. The attendance of 40,688 was announced. With six minutes left we brought on Gooch and Hemir for Dack and Jobe. Jobe had played very well and I think he’ll prove to be a great signing for us. Hemir had a good effort almost at once and his shot went very narrowly wide. I was hoping we wouldn’t get another big dollop of added-time. Eaves somehow escaped a yellow when he clattered Cirkin while much lesser offences had been punished. Five minutes of stoppage-time were announced and I couldn’t hear anyone cheering. The closing period passed without real incident and it ended 2-1 to a lot of applause.
