Friendly Draw For Millers

herringthorpe

herringthorpe

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Friendly Draw For Millers

Matlock Town 1 – 0 Rotherham United Abbey (9) Trialist C (52 pen) The Proctor Cars Stadium Rotherham United made the trip into Derbyshire this afternoon to take on Matlock Town in a pre-season…
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Perhaps I'm getting too old and too cynical but I said to my b-in-l before the game that I had a sneaking suspicion Jimmy Olsen would go big on Vassell. Let me say now if we sign this guy he will spend more time in the treatment room than on the pitch. This club does not learn. Ever.
 
Difficult to judge any trialist based on that. I will say this though. You can generally watch a friendly as a neutral and work out which is the higher league side. Especially when there are four divisions between them. Not so today. If the game went down to a ‘who deserved it’ public vote, I think Matlock might have shaded it. We offered next to nothing.
 
If we don't use our "competitive budget" to sign some proper players, we are heading straight to the bottom of L2 and staying there. Last season's injury crisis seems to be lingering on, yet we are giving trials to 30-odd year old players, We are scraping the bottom of the barrel, despite knowing what has happened previously. It's taken a series of very bad decisions to get us into this state, but it looks like more of the same for 2026/27.
 
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mikemiller said:
If we don't use our "competitive budget" to sign some proper players, we are heading straight to the bottom of L2 and staying there. Last season's injury crisis seems to be lingering on, yet we re giving trials to 30-odd year old players, We are scraping the bottom of the barrel, despite knowing what has happened previously. It's taken a series of very bad decisions to get us into this state, but it looks like more of the same for 2026/27.
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I keep repeating until even I get bored with it but I just don't understand what McClaren is doing here. Even the happy clappers are getting restless.
 
CleanSweeper said:
Difficult to judge any trialist based on that. I will say this though. You can generally watch a friendly as a neutral and work out which is the higher league side. Especially when there are four divisions between them. Not so today. If the game went down to a ‘who deserved it’ public vote, I think Matlock might have shaded it. We offered next to nothing.
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Good grief. Was it as bad as that ?
You can usually see some ‘ Green shoots’ of recovery in the pre-season friendliest although I wouldn’t fully judge how the season may or may not pan out on just friendly games.
Not looking promising though ,is it.?
 
Guy_Branston said:
Good grief. Was it as bad as that ?
You can usually see some ‘ Green shoots’ of recovery in the pre-season friendliest although I wouldn’t fully judge how the season may or may not pan out on just friendly games.
Not looking promising though ,is it.?
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It was as bad as that. We messed up two one on ones and missed one other good chance. Other than that we made little of note. The goal came from the penalty spot (it was a nailed on penalty). Matlock had one kicked off the line towards the end and shaved crossbar. We were dreadful. All of the talk amongst Millers exiting the stadium was that unless we get some quality in soon it could be another long and difficult season.
 
It’s hard to judge based on an hour at Matlock, but FWIW my take on the trialists was:-

Brandon Williams - I hope he gets his career back on track, but he had a bit of a shocker yesterday. He looked and played like a nervous under eighteen. Maybe he was trying too hard.

Kyle Vassell - did ok. Exactly as I remember him. Got all the physical attributes but doesn’t quite deliver. I don’t think he’s the answer to our problems.

Sonny Aljafree (sorry if spelt wrong) - struggled at right back first half. Looked better at centre back. Good communicator.

Will Davis - played the second half. Used the ball quite well and showed quick feet a couple of times. I thought he did alright.

New signings:-

Tavares - best player on view despite missing an open goal

Nemane - tried hard but didn’t impress. Very small and you kind of expect him to be really quick but he doesn’t seem to be.

Jellis - was very busy. Looks decent.

Ashley - good size. Looked a way off fitness to me.

All personal opinions.

The thing is that you expect that over time a pro team is going to wear down a fourth tier non league side even in a friendly and that they will have a bit of quality that will show eventually. It just never happened.
 
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