) and have set up a new home in the purpose built £20m NEW YORK STADIUM which is situated back in their spiritual home just a stones throw from the old ground at Millmoor. The travelling Gulls make the 270 mile hike up the motorways, not me though, just 15 miles for me ( rub it in ) with the hope of securing our first away win of the season as well as being able to cross off another ground on the list. For these reasons i believe we will have far more of us in attendance for this one than the crowds we took to Vale Park and Highbury, Fleetwood.The New York Stadium is built beside the River Don on the old Guest & Chrimes factory site which was a major employer in the town for many years and situated in the small area known as New York to the locals. Indeed the club had to battle English Heritage in the planning stages as EH wanted to preserve some Grade II listed buildings between the proposed stadium site and the town itself. An honourable plan as most old buildings in Rotherham are heavily used as free homes by drug addicts and squatters and an assortment of vermin and invertebrates. Yes, drug addicts. There were 11,441 there for the opening league fixture, a crowd close to capacity and 11,199 there for the visit of Yorkshire rivals Bradford City. Makes you wonder where they have managed to generate another 6,000 fans from given their average attendance at the DVS was around 4,000. Maybe we should have built a new stadium and then are attendances would have trebled! I abhor these plastic 'fans' and i hold them in the same contempt as armchair Premier league 'fans'. Where were they when the club needed them back in the dark days of the DVS? Jesus, there was plenty of room for them all! No, they've all jumped on the 'fresh start' bandwagon until they start struggling again and thousands of them stop going. Unbelievable!!!
Anyway, us Gulls are situated in the Morrison Stand which is behind the goal at one end and this can hold 2,500. We won't need that many seats obviously but i reckon we'll get around 450 ish there. There is no parking at the ground for visiting cars so you are advised to use the multitude of car parks around the town and near the ground, there is some street parking to be had also near the old Millmoor ground. If you are going by train then it is a short 5 minute amble to the ground, given you're in Rotherham though you may want to run. There are plenty of pubs in and around the town for those of you who wish to get their heads stoved in pre-match plus the obligatory fast food outlets which continue to flourish in a town where 75% of it's residents don't know what carrots are.
This is the point on each matchday thread that i take great delight in denigrating each town we visit and champion the highs of that town and, as it's Rotherham, the lows. It's called ANDY'S TOWN OF THE DAY and this week we're in Rotherham. Firstly can i kick off by saying that slagging the town off doesn't sit well with me as my girlfriend is from Rotherham, i'm staying at my mates house in Parkgate, Rotherham the night after the game, i have the same accent as them and i have grown up around the area so i am all too familiar with it but the place is a CACKHOLE and there's no getting away from it. Not like Accrington or Fleetwood but bad enough. It is aesthetically grim, has the highest number of town centre shops which are closed in the north and there is nothing to do there but get drunk. Famous sons include the Chuckle Brothers although i'm not 100% sure that they are actually men, England's most high profile referee and RUFC season ticket holder Howard Webb, perhaps England's finest goalkeeper David Seaman AND not forgetting Paul Shane of Hi-Di-Hi fame. I actually bumped into him at a wedding function in Old Denaby but restrained myself from shouting that particular catchphrase. He is 49 stone so would probably have knocked me into next week. For the younger Gulls on this forum, Hi-Di-Hi was an 80's comedy series based in a holiday park like Butlins and it was about as funny as being wrongly imprisoned.
The lads go into this one on the back of a hard fought stalemate in the Devon derby v Gargs, a result which many say could have been better, i.e A WIN. Rotherham go into this game off the back of a drubbing away at Port Vale where they were 4-1 down at half time and induced manager Fatty to say,"We lacked discipline to mark people, it was absolutely embarrassing for 30 minutes". Not as long as your wife has been embarrassed being married to you lardy! It's funny that he says that they lacked discipline, it's a team managed by Tubby and Raynor - OF COURSE they're gonna lack discipline! State the obvious why don't you?!
I have absolutely no idea which way this game is going to go. Port Vale could be the common denominator in terms of the result as they could have had a hatful against us the way they played but due to our discipline, gameplan and hard work we came away with a more than creditable draw. It looks like Vale played exactly the same way v Millers as they did against us but Rotherham weren't well drilled, prepared and lacked discipline so were picked off with wave after wave of Vale attacks. They weren't allowed to dictate the tempo and pace of the game as they have done in previous games but the key thing is that they WILL be able to do that against us on saturday due to the way we will be set up to play. I expect them to go for us from the off and it we will be under intense pressure early on. We have shown we can cope with this type of onslaught and hit teams on the break and we'll need to execute this gameplan to perfection if we are to get any joy from our first visit to the NYS. If they get an early goal i fear a rout.
The Millers appointed our old adversary Steve 'My god i'm so massive that i should have represented GB in the Sumo' Evans as boss on the 9th of April after sacking Andy Scott during the summer and moved to be reunited with other former Crawley assistant and tosser Paul Raynor. ( NOTE: I've spelt god with a small g and not a capital one as he doesn't exist therefore won't mind the insult ). Evans wouldn't have left the 'good thing' at Crawley if money wasn't involved so it is expected he is on a decent wedge and he proceeded to sign 10 players in the summer including former Gull Ben Pringle who spent a month with us in March 2011 on loan from Derby County and made 5 appearances. He is the Miller's top scorer thus far with 3 goals.
Other players added include former Creepy keeper Scott Shearer, former Excretion David Noble on a 2 year deal, defender Ian Sharps from Shrewsbury who has been made club captain, Lionel Ainsworth another former Shrew and former England youth international, Kieron Agard from the Glovers and Laurence Wilson, a 25 year old full back who was signed on a 1 year deal from Morecambe. Other notable squad members include former Barnsley striker and Nigerian Kayodi Odejayi whose goal for the tykes knocked out Chelsea in the 2008 FA Cup, Daniel Nardiello another one from Exsh*tter, Icelandic international and former Janners defender Kari Arnason who scored against Norway in their 2-0 WC Qualifying victory on Friday night and veteran back up keeper Andy Warrington. In light of the defensive issues Rotherham had last weekend i expect Arnason to go straight back into the starting 11.
Rotherham are currently level on points with us on 7 and they are ahead of us in 10th place and they have gone 20 games without a 0-0 draw so that'll be the score on saturday then! They have had a mixed start to the campaign losing on penalties to Hull City in the 2nd cup competition that nobody is bothered about anymore and being dumped out 1-0 at home to York in the first cup that nobody is bothered about anymore. They also lost 2-1 away to the Cobblers and drew 1-1 at Chesterfield before their capitulation in Burslem. In fact they had an impressive 4-0 win at home to Bradford and a 3-0 home win against Burton which suggests their home form is much better and if we can stifle them for long periods then we may be on for a result. Like i said though, if we continue our gameplan of inviting pressure and happen to concede first then i don't see us bagging 2.
This is their line up last time out at Vale Park:
1. Scott Shearer (gk)
2. Laurence Wilson
3. Ian Sharps
4. Johnny Mullins
5. Nicky Hunt
6. Michael O'Connor
7. Gareth Evans
8. Ben Pringle
9. David Noble
10. Kayodi Odejayi
11. Daniel Nardiello
SUBS: Andy Warrington (gk) UNUSED, Dale Tonge ( on for Wilson on 32 mins ), Craig Morgan ( on for Hunt on 46 mins ), Lionel Ainsworth ( on for Evans on 76 mins ), Jason Taylor UNUSED, Alex Revell UNUSED, Kieron Agard UNUSED.
I'm really looking forward to this one because i actually think it will be an entertaining game plus it's a new stadium and a new experience. I'll be there offering my angelic singing voice and hopefully bump into a few of you guys there. This is a game which is so hard to predict, obviously the bookies will have Rotherham as favouites but i credit Evans with some brains and he will know from his time at Cheaty, sorry Creepy, sorry Crawley, that we are a bloody good side and tough to beat and he will know how Lingy likes to do things. That could be invaluable to them but in Martin we trust and we've just got to get out there and stifle them and nick something. I'm going for another draw, 1-1 with Saah bulleting one in from a corner.
COME ON YOU YELLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You're probably right though but i'll be a tad disappointed if we can't crack the 300 mark especially with it being a new ground and the fact that some fans who maybe didn't go to Vale were saving their cash for this one. I'm being optimistic again! 
Oh and i forgot to mention that apart from table toppers Gillingham, we are the only other unbeaten team in League 2. Hope that trend continues on saturday. 
