Nothing more to say really…there was quite a strange atmosphere leaving the ground tonight.
No doubt playing to orders ?
Safe journey home to the real genuine Rotherham supporters. Well done guys.
I feel they treated the second half almost as a training session on keeping the ball and passing in tight little triangles. Not very entertaining but I suppose going in at half time 2 up thanks to the ref we did not have to chase the game. Even by hardly getting out of first gear we still managed to create 3 good chances that BTA really should have made count. Thought Phillips looked pretty good when he came on, and was happy to see Maja get a few minutes. But if I am honest I enjoyed the last 20 minutes against Watford far more than last night's game. The crowd was up for it and Albion had nothing to lose and went at them. Much more exciting to watch but it was three big points last night so we move on to Saturday where we will have to be more up for it against Sunderland.
Without meaning to sound arrogant the game turned out to be pretty much what I expected it to be. A routine don't get out of second gear win against an already relegated side who'd rather have been elsewhere. On any other given match day we probably would have won by at least four goals with that performance despite the low key approach.
What I found more painful than watching the game was listening to the whining going on around me because we didn't massacre the sacrificial lambs. We have the oldest squad in the Championship and have had more injuries than most. They clearly played within themselves to conserve energy for what's to come and still secured the points.
I heard the first frustrated shout of '..... ffs Albion.....' come from somewhere behind me in the eighth minute. The eighth minute! It was quickly followed by more. We have a growing number of entitled, impatient and emotionally challenged supporters who are spoiling my enjoyment of games far more than anything I'm seeing on the pitch.
It’s often mentioned that we have the “oldest” squad but it’s all claptrap. The average age for our team was around 28. God help all of us if that’s old. It’s not even reached the prime of 30 years! I’m beginning to think that ageism is rife especially from the medias perspective.
BTW that last paragraph was Gold.
Last edited by boingy; 12-04-2024 at 01:43 PM.
The generally accept peak of most players is 27 Boingy.
Even for an average bloke like me, my best running times were at the age of 27.
30+ does tend to see a small drop off and even though it’s in quite small amounts those small % are important.
There will be exceptions to the rule I expect.
With the very greatest of respect this is quite a poorly thought out response Boingy. At no point did I suggest 28 was old or draw attention to the average age of our starting 11. I do however think you'll find 28 is getting on a bit for most Championship starting 11s.
The part of my post you initially picked up on was in reference to the average age of the squad and it's relevance to injuries over the course of a season and the need for rotation. In terms of minutes played per year we have a lot of minutes on the clock for players in the 28 up age bracket.
I for one wasn't remotely surprised to see us play out a controlled performance against already relegated opposition with a view to conserving energy for the games ahead; a point which seemed to bypass a number of those in the crowd criticised in my third golden paragraph.
Genuinely hope I've been able to clear that up. For the record I have access to the Internet and statistics as well. I mention this only because although Furlong is having his best season for us he hasn't been as good as you'd have the world believe 😉 .