MILLERS MEMORIES #2 Rotherham United v Birmingham City Saturday 22nd November 2014 The Millers and The Blues have only met each other in 4 of the last 46 seasons, but 2 of those games will remain in Millers fans memories for a long long time. Saturday October 7th 1989 Rotherham United 5 Birmingham City 1 Birmingham City arrived at Millmoor sitting in 3rd place, in what was their first ever season in the 3rd tier of English Football. The Blues had an 100% home record from 4 games, but had lost 3 times on the road. The Millers were fresh from winning the previous seasons 4th Division Championship, and Manager Billy McEwan had kept the momentum ticking along nicely, with Rotherham comfortably tucked away in 8th place. The Millers were unbeaten at home and were on the 2nd game of a 6 game run at Millmoor, which would see us pick up 16 points out of a possible 18, netting 24 goals and conceding just 6. A real purple patch to keep the fans flocking through the turnstiles. 10 of those 24 goals would be scored by the prolific Scot, Bobby Williamson. The previous week he had bagged an hat-trick in a 4-0 home win over Cardiff, and the former West Bromwich Albion, Rangers and Clydebank striker whos 28 League goals had helped Rotherham to the 4th Division title in 1988-89, showed no signs of easing up and was certainly living up to his nickname Hot-shot Bobby. At half time, goals from Birminghams Simon Sturridge, and Rotherhams Martin Scott had sent the teams in level. However, the second half belonged to Rotherham and one of the finest hat-tricks seen at Millmoor from Williamson plus a wonderful strike from a tight angle by winger John Buckley, gave the Millers all 3 points as we cruised to a 5-1 victory. This win elevated us into 4th place and we very kindly allowed Birmingham to drop back into the 8th position we had vacated. This game is significant to me as it remains as the last competitive Millers home game that i missed. (and what a game to miss) 25 years and 671 home games later, my record is still standing proud. Saturday April 13th 2002 Rotherham United 2 Birmingham City 2 Our first season back in Division 2 (or whatever it was called then-im a traditionalist and ill stick with Divs 1,2,3 +4) since 1983 and it was a season of struggle, scattered with a few memorable highlights. 10 games without a win from the seasons start, and 10 games without a win to the seasons end, but throw in a last minute win at Hillsborough, staying unbeaten in 6 games against the Owls, Blades and Tykes, a memorable giant killing cup victory over Premiership Southampton, and the chance to play second tier Football for at least one more season (we managed 3 more) and most Millers fans wouldve taken that. We faced Birmingham in the seasons penultimate game, knowing that because of Stockports early demise, that 2 of 3 teams (Rotherham, Barnsley and Crewe) would be joining them in Division 3 in 2002-03. As it stood, we just had to match or better the results of the other 2 to leave us safe barring a mathematical miracle. The home contingent amongst the 10,000+ crowd were sent into raptures as home debutant Darren Byfield opened the scoring for the Millers in the 36 minute. However, full back Martin Grainger hit a rocket almost immediately after, which flew past Rotherham keeper Mike Pollitt to level the scores. Into the second half and on the hour mark Centre half Martin McIntosh who is better known for getting on the end of free kicks to head home, actually took the free kick himself and rifled home to restore the Millers lead. Millers full back Chris Beech gave us a very nervy time as he scored an own goal with 70 on the clock. We held on to claim a well earned point and then the news came through that our neighbours Barnsley had lost at home to Norwich and in doing so had lost their Division 2 status, whilst Crewe had earned a very worthy point at Nottingham Forest, but that left them needing to beat Rotherham by 10 goals in the seasons finale at Gresty Road to save them. They beat us 2-0 but the Birmingham point had saved our skins. https://youtube/watch?v=bjd8YJa4E7U
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:56:05 +0000
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