RUFC - Look Back at Last Season - December

Rotherham United`s December programme was cut short by bad weather and bad pitches, and ironically started with Manager, Ronnie Moore, saying that he needed to have a 'word with the Chairman and people at the stadium to see what could be done about the poor state of the pitch at Don Valley,` finishing by saying, 'surely something can be done about it.`

The first game of the month was a very cold Tuesday night at the Prostar Stadium, Shrewsbury. The Millers three games without defeat was ended by two Shrew loanees as they lost 2-0 in which Ronnie Moore described afterwards as a 'scrappy, awful game.`

Chairman, Tony Stewart, attended a fans` forum this month and asked the supporters to 'trust` him. He explained that the piece of land, which the council want the club to have, has only recently come up for sale and that twenty thousand pounds had been spent doing the necessary investigations on the land. He said that the stadium would be a basin style and he would be surprised if we weren`t in the new ground by two years in January.

While Ronnie Moore asked people to be patient with Ryan Taylor, Millers` loanee, Adam Rundle hinted that he`d like to make the move more permanent.

While leading scorer, Adam Le Fondre missed out on being named November`s player of the month, his Manager, Ronnie Moore was named Manager of the Month for November`s results.

December`s first game at Don Valley saw Burton Albion visit and take a point back home with them. With just thirty minutes left to play the Millers were leading 2-0 after Adam Le Fondre had scored a penalty in the first half and doubled the score on sixty three minutes. Webster got one back for the Brewers almost straight away and then followed a red card for Nick Fenton after he seemed to lose his head and lunged at Webster on the half-way line for no apparent reason. Pearson got the equaliser in the last five minutes.

On the following Tuesday night, the Millers were well and truly dumped out of the FA Cup at Kenilworth Road by non-league Luton Town. It was on this day that the Millers extended the contract of midfielder, Gary Roberts until the end of the season.

The Millers bounced back in the next game which was a typical Yorkshire derby at Bradford. Lee Bullock put the Bantams in the lead on nineteen minutes and Kevin Ellison, who had certainly had three Weetabix for his breakfast (!), got two goals in seven minutes to give the Millers the lead at half-time. Straight after the break, Michael Flynn pulled the score back to two-all which is where is stopped until the seventy-eighth minute when Luke O`Brien tripped Drewe Broughton up and Gary Roberts was quick to see the potential and took the free-kick from near the half-way line and lobbed the back-peddling Eastwood, City`s 'keeper, to score a stunning first goal for the Millers. City`s Manager, Stuart McCall had an angry exchange with the officials as he said the kick was taken ten yards from where the incident happened. On TV replays the next day, maybe McCall was correct - but the kick was taken ten yards further back from where the incident took place! In the last couple of minutes Drewe Broughton scored a tap-in to give the Millers a 4-2 win and a much worked for three points.

The games at Don Valley against Dagenham and Redbridge and Darlington were called off and the game at Saltergate against Chesterfield also fell foul of the weather, although this game was called off after many Millers` fans had set off.


Vital Man of the Month for December was skipper Ian Sharps

One of the Polls on Vital Rotherham was -
Nicky Law - winger or midfielder and 73% of voters thought he should be on the wing.

We also asked
With the weather as it is, when do you think the next game involving the Millers will be?
The result was
At Saltergate 33%
At Rochdale 23%
V Bournemouth at DV 21%
Boxing Day 20%
Argh!!!! after that! 3%

We also asked, With the January transfer market almost upon us, where do you think we need to strengthen - 30% of voters said defence with 28% voting for midfield and 27% for attacking players.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.