With a crowd of over 23,400–our biggest home attendance in six years–we took on Rotherham, in the last Yorkshire derby of the season, under the lights of the MKM Stadium. Due to an international break, we were able to take a couple of weeks off to regroup and prepare for the remainder of the season; however, it was the same style of tedious football and nothing changed. We spent more time with the ball nearer our keeper, than theirs and we kept relying on Darlow to clear it or make a long pass. I know it is the only thing to do, however, we need players who can play at the back and operate effectively with the keeper.
You could not make it up; we were able to put one goal past Burnley, who are at the top of the league; however, we could not against a side that is struggling near the bottom. We had 69% of the possession, compared with their 31%, we completed 555 passes–308 more than them–and we had 14 shots, but only one was on target. Why do we do this? I know it is good to be able to hold the ball, but we are not doing anything with it and we need to work on our finishing. Also, today, most of the shots came from our defenders and it seems that our attackers are still nervous and wary. I know that I have criticised Oscar, however, he is the only striker who can shoot and get it on target. Malcolm can, however, when he gets into the box, he just passes it. Sayyadmanesh does the same. This is worrying and frustrating. Nonetheless, we had good spells and we could have taken the lead a few times.
I heard that Connolly was back today, however, he was not even on the bench. Neither was Oscar or Pelkas, who we needed. Rosenior made one change and according to LiveScore, we were in a 4-2-3-1 formation. So that meant we had Karl Darlow in goal; Alfie Jones, Sean McLoughlin, Lewie Coyle and Jacob Greaves at the back; Jean Seri and Regan Slater below them; Adama Traoré, Allayhar Sayyadmanesh and Malcolm Ebiowei were above Ryan Longman, who was up front on his own. It was a strong squad, but I wish I could say the same about the bench, which consisted of: Matt Ingram; Callum Elder; Ozan Tufan; Greg Docherty; Harry Vaughan; Ryan Woods and Xavier Simons. Rosenior made one change during the match and that just tells us what he thought. Let's hope the missing players turn up next week.
In the first 15 minutes, we were playing superbly; pinging the ball around like we were against ghosts and we made some threatening attacks. Also, finally, we were putting it into the box and not messing around with it near the corner flag, which is something that we always do. It did not take us long to have a decent chance; in the 15th minute, Slater received the ball down the left flank, he ran to the edge of the box and dragged his shot wide of the post. I was expecting this to boost our confidence and go on to make more chances, but we did not and Rotherham turned things around.
We were on the back foot and the visitors looked threatening in attack. They were dangerous with set-pieces too; Shane Ferguson’s deliveries were excellent and they always landed in menacing positions. If it was not for Darlow, we would have conceded. I do not know why we drop off and it takes a while for us to regain control again.
For the rest of the half, I was watching a team run around like squirrels chasing a nut and nothing was working. We spent too much time making attacks down the left wing, when Malcolm on the right had a lot of time and space; all we needed to do was boot the ball over to him, which is quite simple to be honest. The opposition must have studied us well as they knew who to target, which was mainly Traoré and Seri who are our playmakers, and knew how we liked to play. Also, they were very good at intercepting our passes, which were good most of the time.
The best chance of the half from us; Traoré made a defence splitting pass to Longman inside the penalty area–he did that against Reading, which resulted in a goal–and he was one-on-one with the keeper. He did everything right with a cute lob, but Johansson made himself big and snuffed out the danger. Rotherham did have a small chance towards the end; Cohen Bramall crossed in the ball, but Ferguson failed to get any contact and the ball skidded past the goal.
The first half ended goalless.
The beginning of the second half mirrored that of the first; we started off well, keeping the ball and not doing anything with it. This was boring to watch and we are not going to get anywhere near the playoff area–I have decided that we have blown our chances at getting into the top six–if we perform like this. All of our games seem to be like this at the moment, especially away games and it is annoying. At the moment, we are getting huge crowds, home and away, and we are going to lose them if we cannot put on a decent show.
We did start to switch on and in the 63rd minute we had the best opportunity gifted to us; Ebiowei teed up Coyle at the right side of the box, he put it back in but it deflected towards the keeper before one of our players could get a chance at smashing it into the back of the net. However, it came back off the keeper and it landed at Tufan’s feet, who walloped it at the crossbar. It then came back to Tufan, who, this time, put it over the crossbar, with the help from a Rotherham player. We did earn a corner, but we played it short, which we did a lot and it did not make a difference, and nothing came of it. This was hard to watch and I felt like crying when I saw the ball fly up towards space.
Then, later on, more drama happened; Tufan, who had a brilliant game, threaded the ball to Traoré at the edge of the box, however, he was dragged down before he could take his shot. This resulted in a red card and a free kick in a dangerous position. But, Ebiowei put it way over the bar. If I had the choice, I would have let Tufan take it or he should have rolled the ball to Tufan who was in a great position to shoot; he had a better vision and the angle was perfect.
After this Rotherham took over and it was us who were defending. Thankfully, they were terrible at finishing and they did not make it difficult for us. But after they went down to ten men, we should have kept on dominating and creating chances. We started to get back into the game in the 90th minute. Great. Why switch on towards the end? We should be dominating throughout the game, especially against a team who are struggling. I do not know what happened and I was not the only fan who was shocked at how we played. Many fans left, everyone around me was getting frustrated and saying how poor we were. For once, I agree with them. Nonetheless, we left it too late and neither team were able to snatch a late winner.
So after having more men, possession, passes, shots and shots on target, we could not even chalk up a goal. This was quite disappointing as I had high expectations coming back from the break. Some players did play well–Seri, Traoré and Tufan–but it was the rest of the team who prevented them from being at their best. The only positive that I can take is that we earned a point and we kept a clean sheet,
I hate writing match reports like this, and it makes me look like I hate the team. But, I don’t and I will be going to every remaining match except for Sunderland–the tickets sold out within one and a half days. I love watching them, however, some games I feel like falling asleep and regret going to. Nonetheless, with luck we can get those three points against Sunderland on 7 April. But, if we fail to score a goal against Rotherham, how are we going to score against a team who are 12th? God, give us some luck
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