BFTG - Rov'rum

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Fair play to Williams for being the only player to turn up in the first half.

Nice move from Stam to bring on Kelly at HT, he got the movement back. Second half was fairly enjoyable

A day topped off by Stam dropping the F-bomb live on BBCRB

[Royalwaster]

Faith play to Grabban grabbing his 2nd goal in 2

[toppy]

A day topped off by Stam dropping the F-bomb live on BBCRB

Then they kept going on about it. Apologise and get on with it

Also as a bonus poor Leeds drop out of the play-offs

[tmesis]

A day topped off by Stam dropping the F-bomb live on BBCRB

I listened to the radio and didn't even notice. What was the context?

[toppy]

A day topped off by Stam dropping the F-bomb live on BBCRB

I listened to the radio and didn't even notice. What was the context?

he was referring to managers you rant and rage at half-time.

[PieEater]

Before the game I was thinking this would be a banana skin waiting to happen, when we didn't score early and seeing the general lethargy of the players I thought we were in for a tight 1-0, then out of a nothing cross AAH spills the shot to the only attacker and we're behind. The next half hour was negative football with feigned injuries and time wasting with the general crowd anxiety and frustration growing.

At half time I said we were missing Kelly and he did add something without doing anything spectacular, we just look better with him playing. Then a masterstroke sub from Stam and a cracking shot (Beerens had previously completely missed one in a similar position) from Grabban and then we looked like we'd win it.

The winner was a great passing move, good through ball and a cross that actually picked someone out and a tap in for Swift.

In the end it was comfortable but for a long time we looked clueless on how to get through their back 10.

[Rusty royal]

A very poor first half, then Kelly completely changed the game. If Swift hadn't scored I think he would have got a big 0 today. Jaap certainly has the oxf*rd golden touch at the moment

[Hound]

Rotherham played fairly well first half and we were a bit of a mess in terms of how we set up. Agree Williams was the one player first half who did anything and was excellent throughout. Shame his contract is running out as he has been very good second half of the season

Second half - Kelly made a massive difference - lifted the crowd within about 30 secs with incisive forward passing which we didn't half before half time.

Rotherham were clearly lacking in confidence and sat so deep when they should have tried to score a few a few more. I don't get the mentality of time wasting and hanging on when they are already relegated. What's the point? Not like a point either way is going to make any difference. Invited us onto them and it was inevitable we would score

Not going to add that much more - deserved the 3 points in the end. Basically everyone crap first half, and everyone improved a lot second. Williams mom and outstanding, Kelly, Gunter, McCleary very good second half. Great goal and confident play from Grabban.

[IceIceGylfi]

Phew. Got there in the end. Rotherham looked like a relegated team (which they are of course); one shot, one goal, then everyone behind the ball - can't believe it took us so long to make them pay

AAH - 6, untroubled, could do nothing much about the goal from where I saw it [EDIT: just seen it back and he does fumble it but tbf you wouldn't expect him to catch it from such close range]
Gunter - 8, I thought he did good today. A bit frustrating to start with but when he started to get in behind and up the wing he looked class
Moore - 7, solid
Blackett - 6, good drive but poor passing at times
Obita - 6, quiet
Beerens - 5, frustrating, doesn't seem fully fit
Williams - 9, only player who showed up in the 1st half. Good drive as usual and good passion
Swift - 8, got in good areas and played some clever passes
Meite - 6, got in good areas also. Just a bit unlucky.
McCleary - 7, much better second half after a quiet and ineffective 1st
Kermorgant - 6, meh.

Grabban - 7, kudos to him, looking sharp now after a bad start to life here. Great goal and movement throughout the game
Kelly - 7, bags of energy and some sublime passes
Popa - N/A

[Westwood52]

Just shows what Adie Williams knows-we were never going to score six-idiot. That was very, very hard work and all credit to Rotherham in making it as difficult as possible for us. We were poor in the 1st half, when only Williams kept us going-the rest seemed half asleep & we were far too slow to get the ball moving.

Al Habsi 0: Looked shaky all afternoon-dropped the ball for the goal & another howler of a clearance 2nd half-what's wrong with him ?
Gunter 6: Far better 2nd half after a lot of negativity-sublime pass for the 2nd goal.
Obita 6: Just about average-he looks so weak at times. Its been a funny old season from him.He has had some really good games.
Blackett 7 : No alarms I wonder if he had most receives & passes today.
Moore 8 : Usual standard.
Williams 9 : MOM kept going in the 1st half when others were failing.
Swift 7: Flitted about to little effect until being in the right place for the goal.
Macca 7: Poor first half , but close to his best 2nd half.
Meighte 5: Tried hard- but looks very naïve at this level. But will get better.
Kermit 7: Poor service to him 1st half-so much more in the game in the 2nd half.
Beerens 4: Terrible air shot 2nd half-but some positive touches.

Kelly: made a huge difference-how good is this kid-but his management should take their time moving him on to a bigger club.
Grabham : Sublime goal-he is obviously a class act, at this level and after months of rubbish, is now coming good.

Rotherham: All credit to a doomed team; they tried every trick in the book to get something out of this & they all worked their socks off.

Ref: Hmm, did alright, but struggled to control the Rotherham time wasting. If we were still searching for a goal after 90 minutes-I wouldn't be happy with only 4 minutes of extra time? Did he shave some time off, to even things up after Rotherham's deliberate gamesmanship ?

I have to say I have really enjoyed this season & have been absolutely engrossed every game -except Man Utd.
I was the mug who thought 76 points was enough for the Play Offs & we have now moved beyond that, with a little bit still to do.

[Lower West]

Another game of two halves. Second half Rotherham dropped back deeper, Didn't press as high. Kelly as a result was given space to play in. Good patient play achieved the result in the end.

Will Mendes get a start at Forest. Understandable why he was rested today.

[harry]

Poor first half. Decent turn around. Relief at 3 points.

Couldn't tell who was at fault for their goal.

AAH - Relatively little to do other than the goal. 6
Gunter - some good runs & decent crosses especially in 2nd half linking with McCleary. Great cross 1st half asking to be finished. 7
Moore & Blackett - some wayward balls first half. Better second. 6
Obita - often in space down the left. Not used enough. 6
Williams - only player trying first half & tried to take game by scruff of neck. Took a couple of nasty kicks from their 4. Couldn't see what happened after the 2nd but thought he might be in trouble for his reaction. Fortunately ref was closer & booked the 4. Continued running with & without ball in 2nd. MOTM for me. 8
Swift - poor first half. Could have easily been subbed. Good job he wasn't. 6
Meite - relatively poor game although. Unlucky that best chance was point blank against keeper. Almost surprised him with the cross later. I may be wrong but I think he dealt with their 4 on behalf of Williams. Subbed half-time but could have been any of about 8 players who went off. 6
McCleary - poor first half in which one moment of brightness should have resulted in a penalty but the ref bottled it Massively improved second. 7
Beerens - poor. 5
Kermogant - quiet game after recent weeks. Little came off. 6

Kelly - instrumental in turning second half around - 8
Grabban - very good finish for the equaliser. Some good trickery at one point. 7
Popa - little time to make an impact.

[From Despair To Where?]

Excellent finish from Grabban, could easily have shanked it over.

A win's a win, we did what we needed to do in the end, and that's all that matters at this stage, especially considering we've played 2 games in 3 days.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Just shows what Adie Williams knows-we were never going to score six-idiot. That was very, very hard work and all credit to Rotherham in making it as difficult as possible for us. We were poor in the 1st half, when only Williams kept us going-the rest seemed half asleep & we were far too slow to get the ball moving.

Al Habsi 0: Looked shaky all afternoon-dropped the ball for the goal & another howler of a clearance 2nd half-what's wrong with him ?
Gunter 6: Far better 2nd half after a lot of negativity-sublime pass for the 2nd goal.
Obita 6: Just about average-he looks so weak at times. Its been a funny old season from him.He has had some really good games.
Blackett 7 : No alarms I wonder if he had most receives & passes today.
Moore 8 : Usual standard.
Williams 9 : MOM kept going in the 1st half when others were failing.
Swift 7: Flitted about to little effect until being in the right place for the goal.
Macca 7: Poor first half , but close to his best 2nd half.
Meighte 5: Tried hard- but looks very naïve at this level. But will get better.
Kermit 7: Poor service to him 1st half-so much more in the game in the 2nd half.
Beerens 4: Terrible air shot 2nd half-but some positive touches.

Kelly: made a huge difference-how good is this kid-but his management should take their time moving him on to a bigger club.
Grabham : Sublime goal-he is obviously a class act, at this level and after months of rubbish, is now coming good.

Rotherham: All credit to a doomed team; they tried every trick in the book to get something out of this & they all worked their socks off.

Ref: Hmm, did alright, but struggled to control the Rotherham time wasting. If we were still searching for a goal after 90 minutes-I wouldn't be happy with only 4 minutes of extra time? Did he shave some time off, to even things up after Rotherham's deliberate gamesmanship ?

I have to say I have really enjoyed this season & have been absolutely engrossed every game -except Man Utd.
I was the mug who thought 76 points was enough for the Play Offs & we have now moved beyond that, with a little bit still to do.

Quite honestly 76 points is nearly always enough for a play off place.

We now have as many points as the season we finished runners up and already more than the year we lost to Swansea

[Royal Ginger]

Another game of two halves. Second half Rotherham dropped back deeper, Didn't press as high. Kelly as a result was given space to play in. Good patient play achieved the result in the end.

Will Mendes get a start at Forest. Understandable why he was rested today.

All games have two halfs...except for Fulham...that had 3.

Williams was excellent, Rotherham were hopeless but put everyone behind the ball. Proffesional win, no great surprises.

I was about to yell at Gunter for not shooting, but it was a tap in for Swift so I shut up. Turned to the bloke behind me who said he was about to do the same thing.

[Nameless]

Giving al Habsi 0 immediately invalidates any other opinions....

Very little he could have done for the goal, docking him 7 or 8 marks for a slightly underhit clearance is bizarre !

Still, we all have opinions !

[West Stand Man]

Another game of two halves. Second half Rotherham dropped back deeper, Didn't press as high. Kelly as a result was given space to play in. Good patient play achieved the result in the end.

Will Mendes get a start at Forest. Understandable why he was rested today.

All games have two halfs...except for Fulham...that had 3.

Williams was excellent, Rotherham were hopeless but put everyone behind the ball. Proffesional win, no great surprises.

I was about to yell at Gunter for not shooting, but it was a tap in for Swift so I shut up. Turned to the bloke behind me who said he was about to do the same thing.

I think that you will find that all games have 2 halves. Few, if any, have 2 halfs. None have 3 of either halfs or halves.

(Oh, and it is "professional"!)

[Gunny Fishcake]

Horrendous first 60 minutes , much better last 30, so funny to see them rushing everything at the end after horrendous time wasting and shaming of injuries. We got the three points that's all that matters. Looking nailed on for second leg of play offs at Mad Stad as sure we'll finish third or fourth ......here we go again !

[WAZZOCK]

We've done very well to get the two wins this weekend, despite being a bit stitched up by the fixture list. The first half an hour you could tell Rotherham had enjoyed the extra day, we looked a bit leggy in places. However from then onwards we began to pass the ball around well and tire out the opposition who couldn't sustain their chasing for too long. We had a couple of decent chances before HT, and we're unlucky not to go in level.

First 15 minutes of the second half we created a decent number of chances, but I was getting a bit worried that this was going to be one of those days. A combination of their GK playing well and their goal living a charmed life followed, but the moment of magic from Grabban was our just rewards after toiling away. The second was a really lovely goal, and was just what we deserved after a brutal 48 hours. Very happy with the two wins, but perhaps more importantly to come out of it unscathed.

[Hound]

Williams spent half the game limping or grimacing - prob mix of tiredness and some very niggly tackles

I'd give him the next game off to recover - a very impt player for our play off chances. Pretty sure McCleary still a way from 100%, saw him grabbing his stomach a few times and still not as explosive as he was early season