Losing on a Wednesday night is becoming a habit. Twice in
two weeks now.
It’s disappointing because we truly could have taken
something from Maine Road. It seemed like the lads forgot that it was a league
game, afforded City the respect given to a Premiership side on FA Cup 3rd round
day and subsequently failed to produce anything but a poor first half display.
The City faithful warmly greeted the half time whistle, with
the home side leading at the break by 1-0.
Shaun Goater, a player who has rarely caused us any problems over the
years in a Rotherham shirt, giving City the lead with a towering header. We
afforded him far too much space to run into, offered a pissy weak challenge to
boot and essentially conceded a really frustrating all round bad goal.
The second period was much improved with Uncle Ray sorting
the first half mess out during the break. Far less respect was shown in the
second 45 as the Saddlers pushed hard for an equaliser. Twenty odd minutes of
pretty impressive dominance was then dashed by three minutes of slick City
counter attacking. Both goals were similar, crosses from our left to an
unmarked Goater/Dickov at the far post to convert. 3 – 0, game over.
Walsall, to their credit, did keep going and unlike Notts
County didn’t fold like a deck of cards. Andy Rammell gave the fans in the
North Stand the final cheer with a well taken left foot strike for a late
consolation goal. 3 - 1 wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the result suggests and
I think that it’s fairly safe to conclude that Man City will be there when the
end of season point counting begins.
On a final note, Maine Road isn’t a big and intimidating as
I remembered. Shallow angled stands and a far too high Kippax roof push the
fans away from the pitch and allow the atmosphere to evaporate. Nowt like
Fellows Park, now that place had atmosphere.