Rotherham United v AFC Bournemouth

Haven't missed a game all season and most certainly haven't paid a tenner for any of them. All watched on the screen of a TV rather a laptop. I'm sure it would even work for our overseas followers so long as they have a VPN.
 
Warne’s Yo-yo Time At Rotherham

The Cherries had their third win in a row after beating Nottingham Forest 2-0 and also keeping their unbeaten run at home in tack. In the first five minutes of each half AFCB bagged a goal by putting pressure on and never really looked in trouble of losing their lead. The next game is away up in Yorkshire on Saturday against Rotherham United (The Millers).

Most of the time when we have met Rotherham U in the league has been in the top two lower league divisions of the Football League and at their old Millmoor Ground. They moved to a new stadium in 2012 called the New York Stadium, the area is known as New York, this is because an old factory which used to be on the site of the new ground. The factory made fire hydrants that can be seen around New York City. The stadium has a capacity of 12,000, but foundations are built in such a way that it can be expanded in stages, first to 16,000 and finally to 20,000. The last time we played them happened to be in our Championship winning season.

In recent seasons the Millers have been a bit like a yo-yo side like Norwich City, up and down between leagues, in Rotherham’s and Paul Warne’s case between League 1 and the Championship.

Rotherham manager Paul Warne replaced Kenny Jackett in the backend of November 2016, Jackett (now at Pompey) resigned from the job after five games and 39 days in charge. In his first job as a manager, Warne’s team had a bad season in the Championship and they ended up well adrift at the bottom of the table with 23 points and were relegated to League 1. In his second and full season (2017-18) in charge Paul Warne’s team finished in a play-off position and beat Shrewsbury in the final to get promotion back into the Championship. The 2018-19 season didn’t end well for The Millers and they finished in the third relegation spot and back down into League 1. The club stuck with Warne as their manager and at the end of the 2019-20 season, Warne rewarded the club with promotion back up into the Championship finishing in second automatic place.

Warne signed four players in the Summer for undisclosed fees. Forward Chiedozie Ogbene from Brentford and defender Curtis Tilt from Blackpool. Two free signings, defender Adam Thompson from Bury and forward Mike Miller from Hamilton.

In Rotherham United’s six home games they have beaten Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 and Preston 2-1. They have drawn with Huddersfield Town 1-1. Lost against Millwall 0-1, Norwich City 1-2 and Luton Town 0-1. In their away games they beat Wycombe Wanderers 0-1. Drew 1-1 with both Birmingham and Nottingham Forest. Lost at Reading 3-0, lost 1-0 at both Stoke City and Swansea City. In their most recent game they went down 3-2 against Queens Park Rangers. At present Rotherham United are in 19th place in the table, with the Cherries 2nd on 26 points.

One season when the Cherries beat Rotherham United on their ground, it was four days before my wedding, couldn’t believe the score when I heard it on the radio, 2-7 and Brian Clark in only his second appearance for our club scoring 4 of them, Alan Groves with a brace and Micky Cave scored the others.

The last time we played them away, happened to be in our Championship winning season, with goals from Tommy Elphick and Callum Wilson in a 0-2 win.
In all our away league games against Rotherham United, AFCB have W 6, D 3, L 11.
All competitions home and away, AFCB have W 18, D 9, L 14.

Rotherham U Team News
They have a few players out injured, including winger Chiedozie Ogbene, centre-back Clark Robertson and left back Trevor Clarke.

Rotherham U Player To Watch
This is a hard one, reading comments from their fans hasn’t helped, but a couple of names they mentioned and both strikers are Michael Smith and Freddie Ladapo, both scored in their last game, the latter after coming on as sub. Jamie Lindsay in midfield another.

AFCB Team News
Jack Stacey missed the Nottingham Forest game with a twisted knee he picked up in the first half against Birmingham. David Brooks and Jefferson Lerma were subbed in the second half probably to rest both players for the Rotherham game.

AFCB Player To Watch
David Brooks is looking sharper and speedier as each game goes on, a really big asset in us getting goals in our last two games with three assists.
 
We also played them at a temporary ground in Sheffield fairly sure it was an Athletics Stadium, I went and remember it well, spoke to to Mark Molesleys dad at half time who didn't know why Harry Redknapp was associated with AFCB.
 
We also played them at a temporary ground in Sheffield fairly sure it was an Athletics Stadium, I went and remember it well, spoke to to Mark Molesleys dad at half time who didn't know why Harry Redknapp was associated with AFCB.

Don Valley stadium on two occasions, 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Lost 1-0 in 2008-09 season and won 1-3 2009-10 season.
 
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Could this be the match that sees Riquleme get a start?

We have eight matches in December so you'd think he's going to have to begin a match sometime in the month if we stick with his formation. At the moment the team is in form and firing and it's always easier to come into a side playing with confidence.

On paper it should be one of the easier matches but then you could say the same about Wednesday or Derby so who knows how the game will actually pan out. However, I think I back RoRo to give it a good go. The five subs rule means we can easily change it at half time if he's struggling to make an impact.
 
I hope that not many changes are made at all.
What we don’t want to see is 4 or 5 changes and then expect to win.
Fatigued players maybe swapped but not all at once .
Front 3 of danjuma, solanke and brooks ...can’t afford to leave 2 of those out of the side at present .
 
JT has to his credit ceased with the 4-5 changes every game recently and instead kept things very much as they are, and it's seen an improvement.

Only issue is how sustainable that is given the fixture list. 2 games a week every week for Brooks, Danjuma, Stanislas, L.Cook etc getting kicked every game is asking a lot. Sooner or later we'll be forced to make some changes. The key will be timing them so that they miss the minimal amount of football for the most benefit.

I would certainly be up for starting Riquleme in place of one of Brooks/Danjuma just to keep legs fresh. They're only on the bench with a 5 sub rule if we need them.

Lerma has played a huge amount of football, and Cook seems to be getting kicked off the park, one of them could probably use a break.
 
I hope that not many changes are made at all.
What we don’t want to see is 4 or 5 changes and then expect to win.
Fatigued players maybe swapped but not all at once .
Front 3 of danjuma, solanke and brooks ...can’t afford to leave 2 of those out of the side at present .
The key to winning promotion is playing your best team week in week out, this season may be harder to do that as there are so many evening games. But a settled side is vital, we would not have got relegated if we could have got our best team on the pitch regularly last season.
 
Didn't we beat them in a cup game about 0-6 with the stiffs; and singing we're coming back with the first team? In 14/15.
 

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