RUFC - First Games

Vital postee The Villager takes his turn today with his first match memory.

29th November 1980

Rotherham United 1 Newport County 0

Millmoor attendance 5,512

This game really was a tale of 2 strikers, as a former Millers favourite made his first return to Millmoor since his move back to Wales, and the current fans favourite scored his 8th goal during that month.

Birmingham born striker Dave Gwyther had started his Football League career in South Wales with Swansea City and after a spell at Halifax Town he signed for Rotherham United in February 1976 scoring 45 goals in 162 League games.
On December 6th 1979 he returned to South Wales with Newport County and this game was his first back in front of his idolising Millers fans.
The £40.000 transfer fee was also Newport's record buy at the time.
However the man who was making the news in November 1980 was Ronnie Moore in his first season for Rotherham who had scored 8 times in this month.
The front cover of the Newport match day programme shows Ronnie holding 3 fingers up and holding a bottle of champagne in the other hand.
This was given to him by Chairman Anton Johnson following his first Millers hat-trick in the previous home game against Blackpool.
His other goals that month came against Millwall (2-1 pen) and Boston (2) in the FA Cup.
His second half goal against Newport County was enough to give the Millers the 2 points and took his goal tally for the season to 15.
The win also took Rotherham above Chesterfield into 3rd place in Division 3, just behind leaders Charlton and 2nd placed Barnsley.

Teams
Rotherham
1. Ray Mountford
2. Gerry Forrest
3. John Breckin
4. Mark Rhodes
5. Paul Stancliffe
6. Jimmy Mullen
7. Rodney Fern
8. Mick Gooding
9. Ronnie Moore
10. Peter Carr
11. Phil Henson
sub. Ashley Taylor (replaced Fern)
Manager: Ian Porterfield

Newport County
1. Mark Kendall
2. Richard Walden
3. John Relish
4. Dave Bruten
5. Keith Oakes
6. Neil Bailey
7. Karl Elsey
8. Steve Lowndes
9. Dave Gwyther
10. Tommy Tynan
11. Steve Warriner
sub. Nigel Vaughan (replaced Warriner)
Manager: Len Ashurst

Later that season Rotherham of course won the third division championship, but Newport had a memorable season as they reached the quarter finals of the European cup winners cup, only losing to eventual finalists Carl Zeiss Jena on a 3-2 aggregate.

Other results on November 29th 1980

English Division One
Aston Villa 1-1 Arsenal
Coventry City 1-1 Nottingham For
Crystal Palace 2-3 Manchester City
Everton 1-1 Birmingham City
Leeds Utd 1-0 Brighton & HA
Leicester City 1-2 Norwich City
Manchester Utd 1-1 Southampton
Sunderland 2-4 Liverpool
Tottenham H 2-3 West Brom Alb
Wolverhampton W 1-0 Stoke City

English Division Two
Blackburn Rov 2-0 Bristol Rov
Bristol City 1-1 Oldham Ath
Derby Co 1-1 Cardiff City
Grimsby Town 3-1 Cambridge Utd
Leyton Orient 1-1 Newcastle Utd
Luton Town 2-2 Bolton Wan
Notts Co 1-1 Chelsea
Queen's Park Rgs 0-0 Shrewsbury Town
Sheffield Wed 1-0 Watford
Wrexham 2-2 West Ham Utd

English Divison Three
Barnsley 2-2 Fulham
Burnley 3-2 Gillingham
Charlton Ath 1-0 Chesterfield
Colchester Utd 3-0 Oxford Utd
Exeter City 2-0 Carlisle Utd
Huddersfield T 3-0 Brentford
Millwall 1-1 Plymouth Argyle
Portsmouth 2-0 Chester City
Reading 3-0 Blackpool
Rotherham Utd 1-0 Newport Co
Swindon Town 3-1 Hull City
Walsall 4-4 Sheffield Utd

English Division Four
Bury 1-0 Wimbledon
Crewe Alexandra 1-2 Mansfield Town
Doncaster Rov 1-2 Rochdale
Halifax Town 1-2 Bournemouth
Hartlepool Utd 0-2 Torquay Utd
Hereford Utd 1-1 Wigan Ath
Northampton Town 3-1 Tranmere Rov
Stockport Co 1-0 Aldershot

Alliance Premier League
Bangor City 2-6 Barrow
Boston Utd 2-3 AP Leamington
Kettering Town 1-1 Altrincham
Maidstone Utd 3-0 Weymouth
Stafford Rgs 1-1 Yeovil Town
Wealdstone 0-0 Nuneaton Boro
Worcester City 3-1 Gravesend

Scottish

Scottish Premier Division
Airdrie 0-0 Partick Thistle
Dundee Utd 0-3 Celtic
Rangers 0-1 Morton
St Mirren 2-0 Kilmarnock

Scottish Division One
Ayr Utd 3-1 Falkirk
Dumbarton 1-2 Dundee
Hamilton Acad 3-0 Clydebank
Hibernian 1-0 Dunfermline Ath
St Johnstone 2-2 Motherwell
Stirling Alb 1-0 Berwick Rgs
Scottish Division Two
Alloa Ath 5-2 Queen's Park
East Fife 0-2 Brechin City
Stranraer 2-5 Stenhousemuir

Top of the UK singles chart was Super Trouper by Abba

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