Today I'm going back 13 years to 2008 and Rotherham United's home game in League 2 against Bradford City at the Don Valley Stadium.
My attendance at this particular fixture is explained by my wish to keep my 92-Club credentials up to date. Rotherham ("The Millers") had played at their traditional home of Millmoor for over a century until 2008. Millmoor was becoming increasingly dilapidated and the ambience of the stadium wasn't helped by the adjacent scrap yard. Not surprisingly, Rotherham decided to vacate Millmoor and to construct a brand new purpose built stadium although that wasn't started until 2010. I for one wondered whether Rotherham's decision to temporarily relocate to the Don Valley Stadium (in Sheffield!) amidst financial problems and without having their new-build underway might prove to be the undoing of the club. My fears proved to be unfounded and their New York Stadium (apparently named after the New York City fire hydrants famously produced by the former occupiers of the site) opened after four years away from Millmoor in 2012. However, I wasn't the only one who had been worried about Rotherham's continued existence: the Football League had stipulated that the Millers had to move back to Rotherham within four years of their decamping to Sheffield. Don Valley Stadium may only have been Rotherham's temporary home but it was a new League Ground for me to visit.
Disappointingly, in addition to being a few miles away from Rotherham's heartland, the Don Valley Stadium was primarily an athletics venue and therefore had a running track around the pitch which always detracts from the view and atmosphere of any football ground. The venue was relatively modern and was completed in 1990 in time for the 1991 World Student Games. In 2013 it was announced by Sheffield City Council that the stadium would be closed and demolished as a cost cutting exercise and, perhaps you can tell by my comments, I'm not exactly shedding tears for the loss of this particular "home of football". However, the loss of any sporting facility is nonetheless something to be lamented and it's noticeable when I'm on my travels across Europe that the provision of community sports facilities seems to be so much better in other countries. They obviously prioritise such facilities and it's a mystery to me why we actively choose not to. Anyway, the Don Valley Stadium, home of one of Britain's great Olympians in Jessica Ennis, is now gone.
In front of an attendance of 4,586, the featured League 2 game (the fourth tier of the English football pyramid) saw Rotherham in turmoil and the only surprise was how long it took Bradford City to take the lead. Luke O'Brien finally lashed home a 25-yard effort past loanee and former York City goal keeper David Stockdale in the 71st minute. Five minutes later Nicky Law grabbed a second, also from outside of the penalty area, to give Stuart McCall's Bradford City side a valuable two goal win.
Come the end of the season, Bradford City finished as the higher placed team of the two in 9th position, falling two points (and six goals) short of the end of season Play-Off places. Rotherham ended the season in lower mid-table but there's more to that than meets the eye as they had been deducted 17 points by the Football League for exiting administration without having a CVA in place (an agreement with it's creditors). That points deduction had initially put the Millers second bottom and in danger of falling out of the Football League altogether before they rallied to finish 14th. Had they retained those 17 points, Rotherham would have qualified for the League 2 Play-Offs that season.
CRB Match No. 1659
Comments
Post a Comment