Saturday sees the travelling Canary faithful embark on the tortuous [no hyperbole here as any poor soul who has attempted it will confirm] trip along the A47, A17, and A1 to the New York Stadium, the home of Rotherham United – now known as the AESSEAL New York Stadium for naming rights purposes.
This has been the home of the Millers for the last 10 seasons, superseding the redundant Millmoor in 2012. Popular footballing consensus would have it that it is certainly an improvement although I’ve not been to the new incarnation myself to confirm.
Those who have been involved with both clubs have been a bit thin on the ground, with only Lewis Grabban, Mark Robins, and Andy “Andrew” Hughes readily coming to mind apart from Carlton Morris’s relatively recent loan spell.
That’s until we come to Paul Warne of course.
I am one of the seemingly few Norwich City types out there who has never met “Warney” but I know several people who have and all would say he is the original “diamond geezer”.
Warne was born in Norwich and is a well-known City supporter as well as playing early in his career for Yarmouth, Wroxham and Diss, where he was part of Bill Punton’s FA Vase-winning team alongside Peter Mendham in 1994.
After turning full-time pro he enjoyed two successful spells at Rotherham as a player, eventually becoming their permanent manager in 2017.
His era in charge saw Rotherham do their best to become the League One/Championship’s yo-yo club before he left for Derby County around six weeks ago, leaving the Millers in a healthy mid-table spot where they remain as we prepare for our meeting in South Yorkshire.
Some might say he would have been a good fit at Colney, but fortune dictated that the stars never really aligned.
So, who in the red and white should we be looking out for?
This is impossible for me to answer as I can honestly say I have only ever even heard of one of the current squad, Lee Peltier. And that’s only because Scouser Peltier, who is 36 next month, has seemingly been around forever.
As we all know by now though it’s the sum of the parts that matter in the world of football [take note, Dean Smith] so this lack of household names in itself counts for nowt.
Warne’s former squad continues to employ their assiduous work ethic under new manager Matt Taylor, who was lifted bodily from Exeter City exactly one month ago to this very day.
One player we will not be facing is Cohen Bramall, who was sent off against Burnley on Wednesday. The Millers had been 2-1 up at the time but successive injury time strikes in the 91st and 100th [!] minutes put them to the Kompany sword. This leaves our Lancashire cousins a whopping nine points clear of us and ominously Watford are starting to hit form as well
For me, Rotherham United will forever be connected with our kitchen here in the City. Following hot on the heels of “top of the League at Portman Road” just before the Christmas of 2003, we took on Rotherham at Millmoor in what turned out to be one of those games whereby I just could not tear myself away from dear old Roy Waller and the radio commentary.
All entreaties to “come out of the bl00dy kitchen” were roundly and soundly ignored as I alternately sat on a worktop like a gnome who had mislaid his fishing rod and jumped up and down like a mad eejit with every unfolding development.
The match was madness of the most entertaining variety and I assumed it would have been lost to the march of time but not so.
Not only did I find a pretty much watchable kind of bootleg version of all the goals and more on YouTube but also a couple of years ago NCFC decided to release a small feature about the original match.
I won’t spoil anything by revealing the detail but I enclose both versions for your delectation and can give six good reasons why readers should take a look:
- Hucks
- Iwan
- Leon
- Holty the first
- Flem
- Malky
Whatever happens tomorrow, you can still enjoy these today 🙂
Memorable Match: Rotherham United 4-4 Norwich City – Norwich City (canaries.co.uk)
Can’t believe that was 18 years ago! I have a number of memories of that game (in which Paul Warne was apparently an used sub)
https://www.worldfootball.net/report/championship-2003-2004-rotherham-united-norwich-city/
Apart from the score there was the realisation just after half time that Rotherham had only 10 players on the field = the red card had been in the tunnel and we knew nothing about it until someone heard about on a radio. Then leaving the ground we were advised by one group of Rotherham fans after another that Huckerby was a diver – and having seen that clip I can see why. I’ve also got an idea that Rob Green had a potential record on the line that didn’t materialise (might have been to do with clean sheets away from home, but I’m not sure.)
I had gone with a friend from Manchester and she was meeting with 2 of her city-supporting friends from Yarmouth who’d come up on a coach. But these 2 were then supposed to be meeting some other friends at the late kick-off at Bramhall Lane and staying in Sheffield. (Hope you’re still with me). Naively they thought they had time to take a train from Rotherham and jump out within yards of the ground.
So muggins,sensing he was about to be volunteered by Manchester friend as a taxi driver, took the moral high ground (and opportunity to show off his new Audi) and offered them a lift anyway…. Somehow I got close to the ground by heading for the floodlights and they only missed about 10 minutes. And they then saw a 3-3 draw with the Hammers.
But as I’ve posted before the most memorable match I was ever at, a couple of years after leaving the Fine City, was Hereford v Newcastle. I still have a soft spot for the Bulls and with the sad news of the death of Ronnie Radford and a home cup tie on BBC tonight I’m sure there will be plenty of reminders of that later on.
PS Lol Morgan sprung to mind as having a Rotherham connection. I thought he’d managed them, It was his home town and he played there but was never in charge.
Hi Keith
Waller and guest [forgotten who] were just as much in the dark about the s/o as you for about five minutes after the restart.
He came up, inevitably, with the line *Branston must have got himself in a pickle with the ref*.
I remember listening to the Hereford game on the radio and think it might have kicked off on a midweek afternoon? that might have been West Ham in the next round though – I was only 15 and memories are not perfect.
Strange you should mention your Audi. I’m a car nut and apart from the obvious like Bentleys and Rollers I think an Audi is just about the only marque I’ve never owned. Dunno why cos my son’s got a current A3 and it’s great!
Cheers
The first West Ham game was midweek evening and I couldn’t get a ticket so I think the game you heard would have been the West Ham replay – I’m sure a few of us had it on in the sixth form common room instead of going to a history lesson. I think it was played in the afternoon because of electricity shortages following the miners strikes.
Well remembered – it must have been the replay as I now recall neglecting to return to school for the afternoon session myself 🙂