Old Red Fart
Vital Champions League
The only reason I'm doing this is because we were so lucky last week and I"m hoping the good fortune rubs off, we need it. The only thing I know for sure about the current Millers club is that they have a nice modern ground which only holds 12,000, which might be big enough for the locals but no good if the opposition wants to bring a big crowd of supporters, which might include us. Apart from that I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Rotherham partly because it's a workers town, or used to be in my time, but they also had a fairly decent team in the old days.
And this also gives me the chance to talk a bit about the best centre forward I ever saw playing for the Reds, WALLY ARDRON. He started off playing with Denby and transferred to Rotherham prewar and then to Forest where he scored 123 in 185 games including a club record of 36 in season 1950-1 I think. He was nearly 38 when he retired in 1956. I've just remembered that he was 32 when we signed him in 1949 for a club record of 10,000 quid. Back in those days football was a part time job and one of the yarns I''ve always remembered goes like this.........In 1942 he was a fireman on a train which left at 2.15 AM to Cleethorpes, returned at 11 AM so he'd been shovelling coal for 4 hours and that's hard work. In the afternoon he played for the Millers and scored twice against Sheffield Utd at Millmore. At 6.15 same day he guested for Denby in a cup game which included extra time. In those days you could guest in a game.
I'd like to see some of the current players try that.
I'm also hoping that a poster with a bit more nouse than I've got is able to produce a proper match thread, come on Pope, Apollyon, where are you when it matters ?
And this also gives me the chance to talk a bit about the best centre forward I ever saw playing for the Reds, WALLY ARDRON. He started off playing with Denby and transferred to Rotherham prewar and then to Forest where he scored 123 in 185 games including a club record of 36 in season 1950-1 I think. He was nearly 38 when he retired in 1956. I've just remembered that he was 32 when we signed him in 1949 for a club record of 10,000 quid. Back in those days football was a part time job and one of the yarns I''ve always remembered goes like this.........In 1942 he was a fireman on a train which left at 2.15 AM to Cleethorpes, returned at 11 AM so he'd been shovelling coal for 4 hours and that's hard work. In the afternoon he played for the Millers and scored twice against Sheffield Utd at Millmore. At 6.15 same day he guested for Denby in a cup game which included extra time. In those days you could guest in a game.
I'd like to see some of the current players try that.
I'm also hoping that a poster with a bit more nouse than I've got is able to produce a proper match thread, come on Pope, Apollyon, where are you when it matters ?
