Rotherham 5:0 Crewe

Shark was in net while Jebu reverted into right back, a role familiar to him from his time as a junior on the RUFC books. Duds was asked to block the left hand side and Denti partnered Paul El in the centre of defence. Gaz and Lee were the middle two men (As Dan didn’t turn up on time from a toilet break) while Jammer moved into a left wing position and JV kept his place on the right side. Up front Chris Grist came in to partner goal scoring machine Burnsy.

It was a lively start from the Millers. The defence was looking much more solid and organised and now people had woke up there was clear lines of communication throughout the park. On numerous occasions good runs from JV and Jammer almost created scoring chances for themselves or the front two.

It was only a matter of time before the Millers scored and in a quick fire 8 minutes the Millers banged in 3 goals all courtesy of Steve Burns before half time. The first goal was a long directed pass by Denti to Burnsy who controlled on his chest and expertly fired into the bottom corner. The second goal came when Burnsy dropped deep to pick up the ball on the left and cut inside past 3 defenders and hit a bobbling shot that the keeper fumbled into the corner. His third goal was a quality strike from 20 yards as he latched onto a JV pass and hit low and hard past the keeper.

A satisfying first half and with the points in the bag it was time to go back out and be ruthless in improving our goal tally and goal difference. The chances kept coming and Chris Grist went close a couple of times but the ball just wouldn’t get in the back of the net for the young striker.

However, it wasn’t long till the Millers bagged their 4th goal. Some good work on the right side by Jebu saw him battle past 3 players and tried to put Burnsy clear. After two ricochets it finally got through but the chance had gone for the big man. However, a screaming JV asked for a lay back onto the edge of the box and he calmly side footed home into the bottom corner.

Mr Burns came off the pitch at this point replaced by Symon who was to make an immediate impact. A ball down the right line by Jebu was chased by Chris Grist and hooked into the box. Symon was in acres of space and he smashed home hard and low into the corner with the keeper just getting a hand to the shot.

At 5-0 up the Millers pressed for more goals but it wasn’t to be and at the final whistle an impressive 5 goals in 30 minutes was good work. The Crewe lads worked hard and were a good set of lads, never moaned and did their best right to the final whistle. It would be nice to get an IFA league game with them some time next year.

Scunny Collapse

With 4 points in the bag and a +5 goal difference it was possible that come our game against Coventry it would be a group decider and qualification would be all but secure into the cup. The right sequence of events would be for Coventry to beat Scunthorpe and then Scunny not score very many past Crewe. As it turned out Scunny bemoaned their lack of firepower in a game they lost 2-0 against Cov and then missed chance after chance against Crewe (who were playing 2 young girls down the right wing) to stumble to a 2-0 win. This meant as long as IMFC avoided defeat by more than 6 goals then they would compete for the main cup. However, none of that was in our minds as with a seeded draw in the knockout competition the Millers wanted to top the group by beating Coventry.

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