We put max' effort in but admit it 2nd half it was them making the chances. Don't tell me Vaulks & Robertson weren't missed, Mattock & Williams also. Crooks is a shocking signing, no wonder the head of recruitment left. League 2 player at the best. Jones wasn't far off being our MOTM.
That's the best our midfield has performed all season.
I must need to go to specsavers then! Ajayi & Wiles were always in the game but we were a midfield player short. Crooks then Towell didn't offer anything. Might as well have played Palmer, Ihiekwe he's come back from the wilderness so there must be hope for Palmer.
Crooks tired but its a long time since he played 90 minutes. First half he did some very good things. He tries to play to feet. Wiles and Ajayi were excellent. We had a balance that we haven't had all season.
Was there, just watched the brief highlights. Rodak was his ball their 1st goal. Ajayi missed his header for their 2nd but can't knock Semi too much. He's done more then enough to keep us in touch. Was talking at half time everybody agreed Crooks isn't up to this level. Like to know what people whose been today think on here.
Crooks tired but its a long time since he played 90 minutes. First half he did some very good things. He tries to play to feet. Wiles and Ajayi were excellent. We had a balance that we haven't had all season.
I went.
and I'm with Smiler on Crooks. In my opnion he's miles better than Towell, puts his foot on the ball and keeps us going forward.
He tired in the second half, but so did a lot of the team... Smith looked like a dead man walking in last 20 mins...
We were unlucky, usual sh**e officials... but they took their chances and we didn't, again.
Harsh that we are playing so well and still down where we are.
As me and others said earlier on in the season, it's those games where we didn't take our chances and ended up with draws when we should have won, that are coming back to bite us now.
Our last 8 games, we lose two, win two and draw 4... that is normally enough to get you up the league.
Tough end to season but we are still in there fighting - and today we were nearly as good as the team who are 5 points clear at the top... I just wish we had pushed the boat out in January and got the missing striker....
Good game and good performance from us. We really battled to keep level with them and thats really credible.
Not too much in it overall but cant moan about the result.
Thought Crooks looks like he can do well once he gets more game time. Have to remember he has only had a few games and no preseason with us. I reckon he will be a good player for us. He has lots to his game.
Newall impressed again today. I just hope he hasnt left it too late.
smith was the only one I would have to say was poor. I think today we could have sacrificed him. Norwich had him totally played out of the game and we could have benefitted from another forward in his place today
We actually played some neat football in spells, more than we will get credit for. This team we’ve got
Is nowhere near the third worst in the division it’s just missing a good forward player but we’ve known that all season. We’ve carried Smith these past few weeks, not all his fault as he’s having to hobble on with a broken toe.
I’d have considered giving Jon Taylor a go down the middle don’t know what anyone else thinks.
Two week break as come at the right time. Hopefully Robertson will be back in place of Wood for the Derby game. Williams at last on the right. Forde & Taylor both ineffective there yesterday. I'd play Palmer as the 3rd midfield player. Crooks & Towell no.
We will finish 3rd from bottom forwards can't score Warney will say proud of my lads as he picks his p45 up. I want a manager who is a winner relegation form yesterday. Don't play land of my fathers again sell him dee dars can have him. We are going down because we didn't beat Ipswich and Bolton simples.
Proud of the effort the lads put in yesterday, and one of our better footballing performances too.
Now onto Norwich's antics which have most people irate: firstly Norwich played some of the best football I've seen this season, but that just makes it sadder that they felt the need to resort to such a level of cheating against a team in the bottom three. Don't get me wrong, they're not the first team to behave like this- i get the impression that, while we are practicing running and taking set pieces at least half of the league are practicing throwing themselves on the floor. It's just that teams like Norwich shouldn't need to - so it's probably fitting that they will go up as the poster boys for the ludicrous charade that top flight football has become in this country. Someone recently posted on millers mad that football is becoming like the wrestling i grew up watching in the eighties. Couldn't have put it better myself, as Norwich's sea of yellow almost resembled.. erm.. giant haystacks. (Sorry).
I can't help thinking that our ancestors wouldn't have cut much coal if they had taken yesterday's canaries down the pit with them to check for gas, they'd have been playing dead in the bottom of the cage at the first whiff of scent of a real man.
Now, onto the referee.
Referees have a very difficult job with the amount of tv scrutiny they now come under with every game televised, combined with the afore mentioned plethora of cheating. I've often defended them in the past when match of the day pundits criticise the ref for not spotting a perfectly executed dive and i'd say "no, blame the cheat". But come on, it's getting silly now. In recent Millers games we're not witnessing perfectly executed dives, we're witnessing a farce that is bringing the game into disrepute. The number of times a fair challenge or non challenge was penalised yesterday was ridiculous, combined with the fouls that were committed against us and not given.
I grew up watching football where referees blew for fouls. Often the crowd disagreed with the decisions, some of which were actually wrong. But this season i appear to have seen a rule change : referees no longer blow for fouls, they blow for players going to the ground. If a player falls over and feigns temporary agony, it's deemed a foul whether he was impeded or not, if he makes an attempt to stay on his feet it's no foul. If he rolls half way around tge pitch after a challenge it's a card, if is felled but jumps straight back up it's not a booking. It's lazy refereeing that is rewarding dishonesty and making cheating more appealing to teams.
We seem to be behind the times in adopting play acting ourselves (admittedly with a few occasional exceptions). I've seen at least one post this weekend saying that our team need to join in with the cheating, and i'm sure many more are thinking it, which in itself sums up the sad state of the modern game.
Great points made DKNY. Once my anger and frustration subsided this morning, I began to wonder whether in fact I have become a football dinosaur. In the modern game virtually all physical contact is outlawed, and famous players from recent years tell us daily that players are 'clever' if they look for or even initiate contact and that they are 'entitled to go down' if they feel contact of any degree. That, apparently, is the FIFA endorsed view. Measures taken to clamp down on diving, cheating, exaggerating injuries, urging refs to give cards etc are widely ignored. Players like their number 17 can dive, act, moan and sulk their way through a match with impunity. The result as witnessed yesterday is that the team that plays the system better often prospers. I don't see it changing, so the question I ask myself is whether or not that is a game I still enjoy watching. At times - and yesterday was one of them - I'm not 100% sure of the answer to that. I greatly admired the skillful football that Norwich are clearly capable of, but their gamesmanship (call it cheating if you like) left a very bitter taste in the mouth.
we played very well yesterday Wiles looks real class, tactics were good, Newell played like we know he can. I have said for years top sport is corrupt, there is nothing with this much money involved that isn't corrupt and I think we saw yesterday another example.
Only complaint for me is Rodak, if the lad would come for crosses, anything as a cross in the 6 yard box he should be going for
Considering we had 4 key players out (Robertson, Mattock, Williams and Vaulks) I thought it was a top class performance from RUFC. Smith seems to be labouring, understandably, but yesterday his usual excellent touch seemed to have deserted him. Wiles was class and I'm still confident that Crooks is going to be a major asset. He's a bit raw at the moment but he's got all the attributes to make a really effective midfielder.
For a neutral, the game would have been really enjoyable. End to end stuff. Norwich are a talented side and do not need to resort to unsportsmanlike behaviour to win games. Aided by yet another ridiculous ref, Rotherham's task is a lot harder than it really should be.
We're definitely not one of the three worst teams in this division and I hope that by the end of the season, that's reflected in the final table.
We haven't got time to wait for Crooks. Don't rate him full stop. Warney says we have 8 cup finals. Pick your side like it's a cup final. Be still be missing Mattock & Vaulks but need Robertson & Williams.
Like to know what whiston01 makes of Crooks. To me if we are to have any chance of stopping up Crooks can't start. Can't give the ball away like he does. Think problem with Towell is he knows when Vaulks comes back he will be on the bench. For the Derby game I'd play Palmer as the 3rd midfielder. Hopefully Robertson is back in place of Wood. Williams on the right at last.
I think there's better qualified people on here (yourself included gwru ) to give an opinion on Crooks, but here's mine. He has only been at the club a short while. he has had some good minutes/halfs for us but appears to fade. Saturday included. I thought he had a decent first half and clearly is able to pass it but then seems to fade out. This is not the first time this has happened. It could be he is not as fit as the players around him and still adjusting to the different demands of the championship. I think he is a fair signing for us for the money we allegedly paid. I think we will be in a better position to judge him around christmas, when he has had a full pre season and has adjusted to life with the millers. Sorry i have sat on the fence gwru.
Great effort on Saturday against a good side, who also took the game to the dark side. Agree with what most are saying so won't repeat the obvious. Still all to play for and we must take encouragement from being able to go toe to toe with the top of the league.
whiston01 I don't sit on the fence with my opinions. I thought Crooks was poor 1st half Saturday. Didn't offer nothing, gave ball away. Everyone I talked to at HT felt the same. Not for me at the moment. Can't carry nobody if we are going to get out of this.
Crooks looks a hell of a player. He is young, has not had a run of 90 min games and has come up from league 2. It will take until xmas if he gets the games to start to see the best of him. Our fans expect too much from some of these players too quickly. It was the same with palmer that lad can play we need to get behind them and give them time especially in league 1 next season when vaulks and ajayi have left in the summer. We need an experienced goalie that is ours not loaned, a young fast right fullback and a goal poacher. The rest is not that bad.
