Rotherham (a); The Review

Biggest positive

Easy wins, gnarly wins, big wins, narrow wins, wins from scoring just before half-time, wins from conceding just before half-time…we can do all different types of wins. Except undeserved ones.

Weekend whinge

We weren’t at our scintillating best – Rotherham did an effective job stopping Buendia, in particular – and created and missed several very clear chances that should have had the game wrapped up well before the final whistle. But we won, so who cares, and this isn’t actually a whinge at all.

Moment of the match

When Big Ben Godfrey decided 57 minutes was close enough to the hour to start chiming, and stuck his head on the end of Kenny McLean’s corner. Celebrated, of course, with some classic Godfrey gurning to the away fans.

Random star performer

Paul Warne, for letting us win because he’s a Norwich fan. More seriously, for continuing to do a very decent job at Rotherham on a shoestring budget, and giving us a couple of tough assignments this season. Unlike some teams I could mention, theirs is a relegation battle which looks like it might go down to the wire, and I’d be very pleased to see them stay up. As with the game at Carrow Road earlier in the season, his Norwich-supporting dad was sadly too ill to attend – ongoing best wishes to the Warne family.

Farke watch

Justified once again for sticking with his winning team. It’s not a bad position to be in when two of the best midfielders in the division are sat on the bench watching their replacement contribute a goal and assist.

Nice game management, too, in saving all his subs for the end with the three individual changes, each a minute or so apart, breaking up the injury time and any building Rotherham pressure nicely. Given he did the same thing against Swansea and Hull, that’s three games in eight days with the same eleven players pretty much all playing a full 90 minutes – so it’s very good news that Head of Performance Chris Domogalla’s contract was also deservedly extended this week.

Atmosphere rating

One of my favourite away grounds in the league – big fan of a steep rake – and it ably hosted a sold-out away contingent in fine voice throughout, especially in those slightly nervous final few minutes. Special appreciation was afforded to Tim Krul from first to last, and speaking of Tim Krul, from my vantage point in row E I had a great view (steep rake, you see) of him turning to the away end and going absolutely nuts when Kenny gave us the lead.

Summary

You can’t argue with six wins in a row – just do the same again when we come back on 30 March lads, and we’ll be laughing. Having been dealt our least-preferred result in the lunchtime kick-off, we handled the pressure to grind out a huge win in difficult conditions both on and off the pitch. Two weeks off now – though I’ll still be looking at the league table every five minutes to see if it’s changed – before the final push.