Plymouth vs Rotherham, sat 28th April, 2-1
Ordinarily we would never contemplate the five and a half hour trip to Plymouth for an away game, but with the last away game of a fantastic season being close to Vickys birthday we decided to push the boat out and hire a house for a long weekend. The house we chose slept ten, so the three Millers fans, Alex, Heather, David, Andrew and Christine, and of course Misty, ended up in Noss Mayo. We travelled down on the Friday to find a fantastic holiday home right by the banks of an estuary.
On the Saturday morning we had a lovely walk down the estuary to the sea. Then in the afternoon the real business of the weekend began. Leaving the Allums to visit a national trust property and Alex to go for a run/babysit Misty we set off for Home Park. ‘We can park at the ground’ Vicky had said. ‘The only time it gets full is if it’s a local derby.’ She obviously underestimated the pulling power of Rotherham United as the car park was bursting at the seams. In a panic we ended up parking on a street about a mile away and power walking to the ground.
We arrived with five minutes to spare and even had time for Ian and Vicky to purchase a pasty.
We found a nice spot on the second row which worried vicky no end. She felt that the pasty gave her no chance of deflecting a wayward shot. Around 500 Millers had made the trip, a brilliant effort
Plymouth needed to win to stand any chance of making the play-offs. We, on the other hand, were almost nailed on. We still wanted to win though. The first half saw a David Ball goal dubiously ruled out for off side before a Plymouth defender was robbed on the halfway line by DaBall. He slotted a perfect pass to Towell who slotted home. 1-0 the Millers.
That’s how it stayed till half time.
Second half the referee was really starting to wind us up with his (seeming) bias toward the home side. With us all screaming for a penalty he booked Ryan Williams for a dive. A bit of skill by a Plymouth player halfway through the half beat Wood and Mike and he slotted home for the equaliser. Though the Plymouth crowd started to get behind their team we still ploughed forward and thought we had won it on 90 mins when Keelan tapped home, only for that goal to be even more dubiously ruled out. Plymouth went straight down the other end and the Notorious cheat Graham Carey fell over Will Vaulkes leg. Penalty said the ref. Of course he did. Much to my disgust the old adage that if it shouldn’t have been a penalty the player doesn’t score failed me this once. 2-1 to Plymouth and with 2 minutes of the four added minutes played (despite a penalty) the ref blew for full time. Plymouth celebrated as if they had won the cup final. Our players looked like they had lost one. This was a game we definitely did not deserve to lose. Luckily, to us it meant nothing. Barring a miracle we would take the coveted fourth spot and the advantage of playing our home leg second.
Next up, the last game of the regular season, Blackpool at home.
Man of the match
Ian - Emmanuel (or Josh as he is known if using the MM conundrum)
Jackie - Towell
Vicky - A man no one would expect, Purrington
Toilet watch
They hadn’t changed the picture on the back of the toilet door, it pronounced ‘welcome Portsmouth’. Cold water. 5/10
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