I called a thread I started on the City messageboard this week “Have you ever wanted City to lose a game?” with today’s final match of the season in mind. Like all of our fixtures for the last few weeks, it was a game that meant nothing to us and yet for our opponents Rotherham, it condensed their whole season into ninety minutes- in a three way fight with dodgy Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham had to win to stand a chance of being the one out of the trio to avoid relegation, then hope that Derby didn’t.
I answered my question by saying that I’d never wanted us to lose a game, but I wouldn’t be bothered if we lost to Rotherham and, on reflection, that would have been the best way to have worded it – have you ever not been bothered about City losing a game?
My answer to that question would have “yes, a few times”, but I have to admit that as Marlon Pack’s eighty eighth minute equaliser hit the back of the Rotherham net this afternoon, the first word to leave my lips was “bugger!”.
I can’t imagine that I’ve reacted in the same manner to a City goal before, but I did so today for a couple of reasons. Firstly, out of sympathy for Rotherham, but moreso because it became clear that we were going to see what I’d call a miscarriage of justice whereby the Championship team which, in my opinion, has done most to deserve a points deduction in recent years were going to keep their place in the league because of the six points Sheffield Wednesday were deducted for the sort of financial irregularities that I could have sworn Derby were also guilty of.
Derby clung on to their Championship status thanks to a Martyn Waghorn penalty though which enabled them to scrape a 3-3 draw with a Wednesday team which would have stayed up themselves if they could have come up with a late winner.
Meanwhile, fast finishing Wycombe earned a 3-0 win at Middlesbrough to leave them ruing their narrow defeat at Cardiff City Stadium a fortnight ago as the team that had been bottom of the table for virtually all of the season found themselves ending up just a point behind Derby.
To City’s game then. Before it, Mick McCarthy had said he had to pick a strong team because there was something riding on the game, but the integrity of the league argument looked a bit hollow for most of the ninety minutes because his side hardly played like an outfit which had such noble thoughts on their minds.
In saying that, I do have quite a bit of sympathy with the players on this occasion at least, because, repeating my cricket reference from last week, I might well have spent more time watching Glamorgan’s game at Lancashire if it had not been for the rain which seems to have hit the whole country today.
So, if I could not get too enthused about our game today, why should I expect the players to? The obvious answer which springs to mind is that they’re, very highly paid, professionals doing their job, but I can remember how I used to feel on my last day before a fortnight’s summer leave and, in the case of footballers they get virtually a couple of months, not a couple of weeks, off. Add to that the fact that they barely had a break last summer before they were reporting back for pre season training and the term “demob happy” springs to mind!
Perhaps if City had two or three enthusiastic young debut makers in their ranks, that may have led to an improved display on their part, but the two youngsters named as substitutes, Kieron Evans and Sam Bowen, were never going to get on today for reasons I’ll come to shortly.
Hardly surprisingly, Mick McCarthy went with the team which had won 4-0 at Birmingham last week, but the contrast between the way we looked dangerous almost every time we attacked at St Andrew’s and our slow, weak and listless effort today was of the chalk and cheese variety.
Rotherham, who have struggled for goals and points in recent weeks as they’ve endured a brutal schedule caused by a combination of postponed games through Covid and the weather, were the sharper team from the off as they aggressively went about their business with a verve and speed that was enough to earn them dominance in a one sided first half.
The visitors had also got a goal lead to lift spirits within the first ten minutes and a fine one it was too, as Lewis Wing volleyed in from twenty yards to leave Dillon Phillips with no chance. No matter how good a strike it is when your opponents score though, there is usually something in the team conceding’s play which a manager and his coaching staff can seize on as falling into the should have been done better category – this time it may have been a clearing header which Perry Ng did not get enough distance or power on and/or half hearted efforts to block Wing’s shot which were in total contrast to what we saw at the Liberty Stadium when it seemed that today’s game could have been a preparation for a Play Off campaign.
I’d expressed sympathy for Rotherham earlier, but the truth is that they had no one but themselves to blame for their failure to be out of sight by half time. Captain Richard Wood, forwards Matt Crooks and Michael Smith and central defender Angus McDonald all squandered good chances with the last named at least having the excuse that it took a fine save from Phillips to deny him.
Apart from a free kick by a subdued Harry Wilson which flew some way over, City had little to offer in response and an angry McCarthy changed things at the interval by bringing on Mark Harris for Rubin Colwill and abandoning the Marlon Pack at the back experiment as he moved back into midfield and City switched to a back four (I thought Pack’s passing out of defence was one of the few positives of the first half mind).
The changes worked to the extent that City looked more urgent for a while and Moore fired over within minutes of the restart, while Wood did well to block the striker’s shot as City failed to capitalise on a three on two break.
It was still Rotherham who looked more dangerous though as Crooks missed another very presentable opportunity and Phillips denied Smith on his near post, but the keeper had given up on another well struck Wing effort from distance which flew about a foot wide.
Moore’s season, with City at least, was ended early in the second period as he and an anonymous Leandro Bacuna were replaced by Jonny Williams and Josh Murphy on the hour and Wilson’s City career came to an end shortly afterwards when he made way for another who was almost certainly making his final appearances for us in Sheyi Ojo.
However, besides the two youngsters I mentioned earlier, there was also no sign of Lee Tomlin who had made the first team squad for the first time in nearly nine months of his injury ruined season. It seemed odd that, having named Tomlin on the bench, our manager chose not to use him in a situation which seemed to be crying out for him, but there was only one other sub called upon and it wasn’t him.
A combination of Rotherham tiredness and City’s efforts to avoid yet another home loss meant that, for the first time, most of the action was around the visitor’s goalmouth in the last ten minutes or so, but, although Rotherham were just about out on their feet, they were able to cope quite easily with what was a largely aerial assault.
However, when a half clearance rolled into Pack’s path, his precisely placed effort from just outside the penalty area was far too good for Jamal Blackman who had only been given routine saves to make up to that point..
The goal which broke Rotherham hearts and made Pack a hero in Derby came out of the blue and represented the final piece of goalmouth action in the game, but added time brought two matters worthy of comment which showed City in a contrasting light.
Firstly, maybe it was just me, but I found it so disappointing that, in a game with nothing riding on it for them, City decided not to look for a winning goal from two free kick opportunities they had inside the Rotherham half as, instead, they appeared to be more interested in running down the clock – why? If Rotherham had caught us on the break and won the game (most unlikely considering how knackered they were) then good on them, but, no, we looked to settle for a point in a situation where, surely, we would have been looking for a winner normally – I’d like to think that City would have been left in no doubt as to the crowd’s feelings about that piece of unnecessary negativity if there had been one there.
To counter that though, it was great to see Sol Bamba come on for the last ten seconds or so (in fact it was the highlight of the afternoon for me) following the completion of his course of chemotherapy about a month ago and kudos to Rotherham manager Paul Warne for his classy gesture in congratulating Sol just as he was about to come on despite knowing his team were almost certainly going to be relegated within seconds – apparently, the whole of the Rotherham team joined in with the applause which greeted Sol’s introduction which is another reason to be disappointed by their relegation.
So, a unique season ends with a feeling of disappointment and anti climax for City. I’ve often said that I think we had a better squad than last season’s and I still believe that, so an eighth placed finish is, I would say, below realistic expectations even though it did looked like we were going to finish a lot lower than that when Mick McCarthy was appointed – McCarthy turned our season around, but he couldn’t cure the home blues which, for me, were the biggest single reason why we couldn’t repeat last season’s top six finish.
Finally, Rubin Colwill was named Academy Player of the Year despite the fact that I can’t remember him playing for the Under 18s this side of Christmas. Colwill has long since moved on from teenage football, but what I would say is very close to the strongest side the Under 18s could field now was picked for today’s season’s finale against Ipswich at Treforest and they responded with a 6-0 win despite having Ryan Kavanagh sent off in the first half – the goals came from a James Crole hat trick, a couple from Cian Ashford and Eli King.