Preston come to town tomorrow unbeaten in their last six games. Three of those last six have ended 0-0. Only Cardiff, Huddersfield and Wigan have scored less goals than P.N.E. However only Burnley, Sheff Utd , luton and Coventry have let more goals in.
We have our usual injury problems. Several centre backs out ( Hall, Morrison,) and possibly Wright and Peltier. the latter is only on light training. Coventry has tonsilitis, Rathbone is a doubt so it could be a bit of a patched up side. Without Rathbone i fear our intensity will not be anywhere near it has been in games at home against Blackburn and Sunderland. This will be a tough ask to get anything from. I think a 0-0 draw would be a fair result for us.
I think the side will be something like this assuming Coventry is well enough to play and Rathbone manages an hour or so.
Viking
Harding Blackett Humphries Hjelde.
Coventry
Ogbene Rathbone Fosu Ferguson
Hugill
Keep posting unifier. The posts you and the other lads put on are quality. Some old posters will return and hopefully some new ones will join us. UTM
It looks like Rathbone will be missing tonight and Saturday. He will be a big loss and i expect Taylor will select Odoffin has his replacement as he seems to prefer him to Lindsay. I hope Coventry can play, if not i think both Odoffin and lindsay would then have to play and that certainly weakens our chance of anything tonight imo. As i said before, a point tonight would be some performance.
Will the real Rotherham please turn up on Saturday. If ever the phrase Jekyll and Hyde was correct for a football team it is bang on for us. Preston looked a well organised and strong team but they beat nothing last night.
I thought we started quite brightly last night with Ogbene causing problems. Preston gradually got into the game and over the full ninety minutes they were comfortably the better team. They scored halfway through the first half with our defenders more concerned with appealing for offside than defending. We got back into it when Odoffin headed home from a Ferguson corner. They restored the lead when Evans was given far too much room and hit a good left footed shot into the bottom corner which many felt took a deflection on it's way into the goal. Hugill missed a good chance of scoring in this half when he headed over the bar. We had very few other attempts all game.
Here are some of my untrained observations. I think our back four play too narrow and allow crosses into the box. That seems strange as our central defenders are not commanding in the air. I thought Harding and Hjelde had poor games and agreed with Taylor when he took both off. The midfield had very little creativity last night and i also felt they didn't do enough of the high press evidenced in the Sunderland game. Fosu had a poor game and for me Odoffin fades in and out of the game too much. Coventry had no influence on the game and had very few touches. I know Ferguson is the best crosser at the club but he appears more and more a luxury player to me as he hardly seems to be involved apart from corners. I thought Ogbene was a threat but he seemed to go deeper as the game progressed. Hugill is ploughing a loan furrow up top but he is constantly looking to check the defender rather than go to head it on or hold it up. When washington came on i again felt he offered nothing to the game. Bramhall is so one footed and offered very little as a replacement for Hjelde. The one bright spark appeared to be Blackett who i thought looked very comfortable and solid.
The last time i said this the lads came out and thrashed Blackburn so here goes. I cannot see where our next win is coming from if last night is anything to go by. Perhaps Mr Hyde will turn up saturday.
I only hope you're right about Mr Hyde turning up Whiston. In replying to your post I broke my promise to myself to walk away from this site, but can't leave you to kick the ball about on your own, so I'll carry on until the end of this season. If any other posters decide to join us in that time, I'll consider staying, otherwise we'll end up like Waldorf and Stattler.
You're absolutely right about the team though. They started off well, and needed an early goal to boost confidence, which quickly ebbed away once Preston started to get the measure of us. Don't think Hugill is a leader, and not captain material as I see it. We seemed to run out of steam half way through the first half and seemed devoid of ideas to try to get through the Preston defence. Agree that Ogbene dropped further back, probably because he felt that our defence needed help, but most of the team did the same, and that's where we needed a Rathbone type to get amongst them. Disappointed with Lindsey on the day, but he probably needs a few games to get up to match fitness.
Let's hope that Cardiff's keeper has a shocker on Saturday, and keeps up the run of sendings off. Not panicking yet, but we need the points!!!!
