Steve Evans has infected Rotherham United. Every time I have been to that ground, the home support has been loud, and the atmosphere has been good, but yesterday, it was horrible.
Even before the game, before the floodlight failure sucked life out of the event, it was just flat. Their fans were silent; it was just like watching a game during COVID. They have a nice ground, steep sides to get a good view, but the football they’re watching is horrible. In the pre-match, Michael Skubala mentioned they’re a bit different to his Stevenage, and they are. His Stevenage were (in the main) limited footballers doing what they needed to do to get by. His Rotherham side are good footballers, sinking down to a level that belittles their abilities.
He’s also infected them with his dark arts, and I won’t start anywhere other than the assault on Adam Jackson. That’s what it was – Evans; tactics clearly involved taking out one of our centre-halves, so their aerial bombardment was more effective. Jacko, just back from injury, was targeted by two challenges that were right in front of the steep-sided away end and amounted to nothing less than assault. Sure, Rotherham fans will read this and go on about being bitter, etc, just like Gillingham fans did (before they went down) or Mansfield fans did (before they didn’t go up) with Evans at the helm.
This is pertinent, in my opinion, because football has moved on from the seventies, when targeting a player with fouls was acceptable. Now, a tough tackle on a player is usual, but what happened to Jacko was not that; it was (in the words of one social media user) ‘Pre-meditated, obviously under instructions’. That’s not acceptable in this game. I’ve watched both back, one by Nombe and the other by Odoffin. The first isn’t obvious from the angle on the TV, but was much clearer from the stands. The second, literally within 30 seconds, gets worse when I watch it. Odoffin doesn’t even get off the ground; he just takes out Jacko. Eight minutes in, and Jacko’s is out of action.
The referee gave nothing; he’d actually waved play on for a foul by us between those two moments, which is a slap in the face. Another incident, three minutes into the second half, was once again typical Evans side. House is set free, over the top, and Zak Jules pushes him over. House is one-on-one, and the referee gives a yellow. It led to our goal, granted, but it is a deliberate professional foul and surely, surely a red card. There’s no attempt to play the ball; it’s just an out-and-out push. It’s obscene how bad the officiating was and a clear indication of why you need a decent referee to take control of Evans and his teams. Martin Woods is not that referee.
I don’t even want to talk about the game, but I have to. I feel the Jacko incidents in particular, set the entire narrative, and anything I say after should have the caveat of ‘but they did this to Jacko’. I’ve seen plenty about our set up not working, but defensively, we wouldn’t concede the first goal with Jacko on the pitch. Some say Wickens perhaps should have come for it, but we went with two big defenders to stop their aerial bombardment, and they took one of those out, meaning they were more of a threat. Their goal came from a cross, I believe, a warrior-type defender like Jacko clears. He’s not there; they score. I can’t digest them scoring that goal as a result of their deliberate attempts to remove one of our assets. I just can’t.
If I’m taking off my rose-tinted anger spectacles this morning, you can see Nombe lose his man, which is Dom Jeffries (the player who came on for Jacko, which serves to underline my point). Jeffries is there for first contact with Nombe, but when the ball goes out, their striker just pulls away a little, finding space. Also, while from behind the goal it looked like Wickens should have come for it, looking at the trajectory and where it drops, I think it is harsh to drop that goal on the keeper’s plate and be done with it. If Nombe is picked up, it’s not an unchallenged header.
The goal did one thing – it finally got a song out of the crowd. The floodlight failure might have sucked some life out of the place, but I’m not sure I heard a single song that didn’t come straight after a goal. There were multiple empty seats, and the gate of 8995 seemed to be an awful lot more than the eye test suggested was there. The Millers were once the beacon of what a League One club should be – up to the Championship every season they weren’t being relegated, always a bit too good for this level and backed by support that felt on top of you in what is a really good ground. He has sucked the life and soul out of the place, creating Frankenstein’s monster out of good (albeit expensive) players and a wonderful example of a new build stadium. Way to go, Evans.
Did we do enough in the first half to warrant being level? Probably not once they scored, no. We had more possession, but the Rotherham are organised, and with one up top, we found it difficult. House made their keeper produce a super save before the goal, and he was the most worked, I think, having to come out later to smother a chance from Moylan. That said, Rotherham had chances, not great ones, and they looked dangerous on the break.
When we got the ball down in the middle, McGrandles, Hamilton and Erhahon were able to exert some control, and Moylan always looked likely to create something, but we didn’t. If the second half had been the same as the first, I’d have not been as angry about the game as I am, because I could say we hadn’t done enough, but in the second half, we did.
We weren’t perfect. Some of our passes went astray, but I always felt we were one decent ball from a chance or two. Like the game on Saturday, we had to come out fighting, and we did.
My thoughts exactly. The Jacko incident was planned.