It’s not looking good, in fact it’d looking really, really bad. Five seasons ago Monkey and me sat on the away end at Forest for a Championship match against the Millers and said that “relegation was the new promotion”. Over priced games, all seater stadiums, over zealous stewarding and stupid Police regulations had taken most of the enjoyment out of the game and we longed for the days of standing on an away end at places like Rochdale, Stockport and Barnet. Well this wish appears to be coming true. We will be playing 4^th division (or whatever the feck they call it these days) football again next season. The early season optimism that was washing over some fans seems a hundred years ago now, as we couldn’t win a game against Cleckheaton Ladies 2^nd eleven even if they had massive injury problems, flu epidemic and 6 players suspended!

 But, we’re supporters, so you still turn up. You still sit there and think “why am I here?” every week, and it is ‘every’ week. That’s what fans do.

So me and Monkey turned up at 6:20 to the RU Suite and sat there drinking and talking crap. Jamie a HTFC friend of ours turned up and we proceeded to try and explain how bad we were and that no matter what he thought about their chances, they would win. Simple really, we look about at lethal as a sponge up front and therefore have no chance of scoring goals and a goalkeeper made of Swiss cheese, which means a 3 goal start for any opposition, including Cleckheaton Ladies.

 Billy, Gav, Father Ted and Gary all turn up and as there was no sign of Monty and his sponsorship team we ate their free pie and chips. It’s not all bad you know!

Billy and Gav went on to the Tivoli leaving Me, Monkey and Jamie to head for the main stand. We took up some seats near the front in the middle of the stand and settled in. It immediately became obvious that we’d gone back in time and were at a match in the 1970’s. The fans around us were of a very different generation and were Rotherham’s finest. Not one had an IQ above that of the average Pit Bull and some of the things they were shouting at the players, stewards, other fans, linesman and referee were just ridiculous . One old bloke decided that shouting the phase “Wako Jacko” at Peter Jackson (HTFC manager) was cutting edge comedy, and he continued to do it all feckin night. Together with phases such as “You Yellow Shit”, “You Black Shit” & “Black face” you can see what kind of a night we were in for.

Almost instantly Fleming making his home debut made two stupid defence mistakes. The second of which put them 0-1 up within 3 minutes. Great Start.

“Wako Jacko”

As usual, we didn’t look like scoring but a scramble in their area following a corner saw Sharps turn and hit a shot (which was probably destined for the stand) that caught one of their defenders on the arm. His hands were around his face and the ref not only pointed to the spot but sent their player off as well. Harsh, very harsh.

O’Grady stepped up and put the penalty away and it was 1-1 with 20 minutes gone.

“Wako Jacko”

And that was it for the first half. But the crowd applauded the lads off. We’d got the whole of the second half to score against 10 men, surely we could manage that. Well that seemed to be the opinion of everybody except me and Monkey. We spent the half time interval explaining to Jamie that Huddersfield would win. While ever we had that muppet in the net all they had to do was get a shot on target.

“Wako Jacko”

Two minutes into the second half Huddersfield did just that. They got a header on target. Swiss cheese keeper palmed it into the net and we were 1-2 down

“Wako Jacko”

As they score the HTFC physio throws a plastic bottle of water into the air in celebration. The dugouts at Millmoor are very close to the stand and the bottle lands on the walkway in front of the main stand seats, just on the fans side of the wall. No where near the fans really and it’s a small plastic bottle! But this means nothing to the Munster’s relatives around us who go mad. Why?........want’s the point of trying to get their physio sent off? No logic at all is applied to their thinking and the physio takes all kind of verbal abuse.

“That could have hit my f**kin kids, you c**t”,

“Just F**k off you wa**er, there’s F***in little’un’s in here”

The logic of this abuse is just astounding, oh and of course….

“Wako Jacko”

Five minutes later they miss-hit a weak shot from the edge of the area, which the keeper lets go between his arms as he goes down in instalments and we’re 1-3 down against 10 men. Absolute shite.

“Wako Jacko”

The rest of the game is awful. Knill brings on substitutes & changes the formation but the team (I use the term lightly) have no idea how to play against ten men and look dreadful. We do manage to pull one back, Facey scoring against his former club.

“Wako Jacko”

But in truth we’re awful and got what we deserved, Nothing.

“Wako Jacko”

“Wako Jacko”

“Wako Jacko”