A magical 20 seconds at Rotherham - reasons enough to keep watching this team

I know it's late in the week but I am only just getting round to watching the full match replay of last Saturday's game at the New York Stadium. As most have already said, it wasn't the greatest of local derbies but, to be honest, it wasn't much different to many that have gone before it. We could have been a couple of goals ahead before we finally scored but, then again, so could they.

However, the reason for my post is just to document that twenty-second passage of play that resulted in Adam Armstrong slotting the ball in. It was a devastating move which sums up a lot of our play just lately. It simply involved our breaking down an attack on our goal and then playing it through to the other end in double quick time without resorting to the long ball tactics. For those who haven't seen it, this is what happened.

On 68 minutes and 46 seconds a move was halted in our box by a combination of MacDonald and Evans. Callum Evans had only been on the field a few minutes but showed that he is capable of playing the ball out rather than hoofing it. He slipped it quickly to Ryan Kent who then made two brilliant runs. Firstly he played it to Marley Watkins but kept running past him to receive the return ball which came as he was heading towards the dugouts. Then Kent changed direction and played a one-two with Matty James. Again Kent kept running to get a return pass as he went by James. A few more strides forward and Kent released an exquisite pass, bissecting their defence for Armstrong to run on to.

On 69 minutes and 6 seconds the ball hit the back of the net. Twenty seconds of sublime football that sum up, for me, what this team is capable of. I've been one of those criticising Ryan Kent the last few weeks but I'm not now. He seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds and I suspect that Adam Hammill has a hand in that progress. Good on Adam if he is acting as mentor to the lad.

It would be nice to watch a match with end to end excitement and loads of goals but it can't always be that way. Sometimes you have to grind out 1-0 wins and last Saturday we did that. I wasn't there but I would suggest that the twenty seconds described above made it worth making the trip to Rotherham. Fantastic stuff!

 

Just a shame it was followed up by Tuesdays home defeat really.

I thought the whole Rotherham experience was a strange one. Very unlike a close local derby with very little needle on or off the pitch.

A Rotherham fan was calling us "tinpot" prior to the season, and crowing about how they would finish above us. I couldn't even be arsed to rub it in now as I actually feel a bit sorry for them.

We need to get back into some kind of rhythm now, because the odd good move in a game will soon wear a bit thin if in isolation.

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We had an instance on Tuesday night which showed a glimpse of what this team is capable of. It culminated in Williams receiving the ball on the edge of the box and taking too long to pull the trigger. But the build up play leading up to it was exceptional.

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I thought the match against Rotherham was very flat. We were poor and they were marginally worse but that goal was freakishly good perhaps even more so amidst the mediocrity.

 

TBH I think you can look at any passage of play that leads up to a goal for us and call it sublime, as it results In a goal, likewise any goal against us can be called poor defending etc.