This strange and, from a City point of view, disappointing season comes to an end tomorrow with a home match which, for the second successive time in a final game, could see our opponents relegated. Rotherham can take heart from the fact that the match is being played at Cardiff City Stadium (our miserable record there is the main reason why I described the season as disappointing above), but, like Hull last season, they need things to go right for them elsewhere even if they were to win – if they do go down, I’d like to see them come straight back up to Championship like Hull have done.
Anyway, enough about the football, it’s obviously the last quiz of the season that is the most important thing! Here are seven Rotherham related questions dating back to the sixties – I’ll post the answers on Sunday.
60s. A tough one to start with, why would a certain Cardiff City goalkeeper from this decade look back on a meeting with Rotherham United at Ninian Park in front of a crowd of less than ten thousand with particular affection?
70s. . It could be said that this Yorkshireman was slumming it during his short stay at Rotherham because he was used to performing on grander stages at that time. Just about old enough to be called a wing half, he was a defensive midfielder by today’s standards known more for his passing ability than his physical approach. He started off in his home county with a side which played in a district of the city which gave them their nickname and the London club that bought him some eight years after his debut had to pay a club record fee for his services. His record at his new club was suggestive of homesickness, hence his brief spell with Rotherham, and his subsequent return to his first club did not come as a surprise. While he had been away though, the club had gone into a slump which he could do nothing to stop and he left for a capital highway for a season to wind down his career – his visit to Ninian Park that year saw his team hammered as City turned on the style. Who am I describing?
80s. With a surname which suggested despatch the lot, he arrived from Carlisle, made one start, against Rotherham, during this decade and left City shortly afterwards, who?
90s. Will pals dual be in Rotherham? (4,6)
00s. Who was the City midfielder from this decade who only played nine matches for us, but two of them were against Rotherham?
10s. Described as the best goalscorer in England, he came on as a sub for Rotherham in a match at Cardiff Coty Stadium during this decade, who?
20s. Hebridean on the flank?
Memory
It was on a field in Canton
where we used to watch them play
Our heroes and the colours
remain so clear today.
In the smell of cheap tobacco.
We walked there feeling small.
The singing just beginning,
as we took up the call.
Our first sight of the green pitch
would capture us for years.
Not knowing of the future
and the coming joys and tears.
That first time still imprinted.
We dream about it yet.
The sound, and feel of glory
when City hit the net!
Those days are still so distant,
just like draft pints of dark,
but we all still remember
Our magic Ninian Park.
Rob Evans May 2021
Thanks for that Rob – I think it deserves a wider audience, so I’ll include it in the first of the regular updates I do through the summer.