A
Anonymous
Guest
Not a bad game at all and well worth it for £5. Didnt have bad seats either, quite central in the West lower. I feel sorry for anyone who left early, they missed alot :wink: Anyway, onto the game...
Got into the ground at about 7:40 and the teams come out and I see Kanu doing the duties of the captain, and Im thinking 'why is he captain?', but then again we didnt have many other alternatives. Happy to see Cesc lining up too in what was a quite attacking formation
Early on I felt Rotherham held their own and they did so for most of the match. Their moment of the first half was Byfield forcing a decent save from Stack. I felt Arsenal looked decent in the first half and most of our attacks stemmed from Edu and Cesc, and also Aliadiere who was a handful all game. Fully deserved his goal and was probably MOM from an attacking point of view.
Aliadiere also had another chance at the start of the 2nd but unfortunately put his shot wide by the narrowest of margins. I felt Cesc improved on a solid first half and was a bit more influential in the 2nd, playing some quality through balls and also getting the confidence to have a go, one shot was just wide and the other he completely screwed but we dont need to worry about that. Overall he had a good game and got a standing ovation from most of the crowd and it was thoroughly deserved. Highlight of the 2nd half was probably the amount of abuse Rotherhams #24, Chris Sedgwick got. If I remember rightly he fouled Clichy and came in for some right stick. Bad thing was he set up Byfield for his ladt minute header (good cross and finish though), but it wasnt so bad because we got about another 45 minutes worth of entertainment ;D
Into extra time we went and within minutes Rotherham were down to 10. The very fast Quincy broke through, and attempted to lob the onrushing goalkeeper Pollitt. His shot was actually quite weak, but Pollitt threw up and arm and had to go. Unfortunately Ronnie Moore decided to sacrifice Sedgwick, so that was the end of the stick for him, and brought on their sub keeper Gary Montgomery. Rest of the 1st extra time period was pretty uneventful.
2nd half was a bit better but we wasnt really too eager to press for a winner. We had a goal disallowed through Wiltord, and Edu had a stunning free kick met by an equally good save from Montgomery. So, it came to penalties
Swailes stepped up first in front of the North Bank and scored to put Rotherham 1-0 up. Wiltord then missed, at this point his confidence must have been so low and I felt really bad for him. Rotherham then went 2-0 up before Edu scored to reduce the deficit. Rotherham substitute Mullins then missed and Aliadiere levelled it up. Rotherham then scored again before Cygan stepped forward and slotted his penalty low to the left of the keeper and into the bottom corner and a sigh of relief was breathed. Byfield then hit the bar for the visitors, so we had the chance to win it, but the pacey Quincy saw his penalty saved. Sudden death was upon us
Each penalty was scored here, most notably a top corner beauty from Spicer, an equally good penalty from the Rotherham keeper Montgomery and one from our own Graham Stack made sure things were level at 8-8. Back to the beginning we went. Swailes stepped forward for Rotherham but this time Stack was equal to him and saved his penalty. And so to Sylvain Wiltord. If we needed anyone to put this away, it was him, and he did. Struck low into the bottom left hand corner. Hopefully this will do his confidence the world of good
Match ratings
Stack - Made a few good saves but looked dodgy at times - 6 (out of 10)
Hoyte - Fairly solid performance - 7
Tavlaridis - MOM in my opinion. Had a very solid game. Great in the air, won alot of tackles - 8
Cygan - Didnt do anything stupid, which is a bonus - 7
Clichy - I didnt feel he was that great but at the same he wasnt **** - 6
Cesc - Grew in confidence throughout. I really hope he lives up to the hype - 7
Edu - Had some good moments - 7
Thomas - Looked good on the left, pretty fast and tricky - 7
Captain Kanu - Did OK but his problem is he doesnt know when hes done too much. Got an assist, even if he didnt mean it - 6.5
Wiltord - Was pretty ineffective, but scored the winning penalty - 6
Aliadiere - Constant threat up front, very pacy. He or Wiltord should start on Saturday - 8
Subs
Smith (for Thomas) - Did as well as Thomas did, but hes left footed, so that will work for him I think - 7
Quincy (for Cesc) - Looked a handful also, very fast and a box of tricks - shame he missed his penalty - 6.5
Spicer (for Hoyte) - Didnt really have much to do - 6
Got into the ground at about 7:40 and the teams come out and I see Kanu doing the duties of the captain, and Im thinking 'why is he captain?', but then again we didnt have many other alternatives. Happy to see Cesc lining up too in what was a quite attacking formation
Early on I felt Rotherham held their own and they did so for most of the match. Their moment of the first half was Byfield forcing a decent save from Stack. I felt Arsenal looked decent in the first half and most of our attacks stemmed from Edu and Cesc, and also Aliadiere who was a handful all game. Fully deserved his goal and was probably MOM from an attacking point of view.
Aliadiere also had another chance at the start of the 2nd but unfortunately put his shot wide by the narrowest of margins. I felt Cesc improved on a solid first half and was a bit more influential in the 2nd, playing some quality through balls and also getting the confidence to have a go, one shot was just wide and the other he completely screwed but we dont need to worry about that. Overall he had a good game and got a standing ovation from most of the crowd and it was thoroughly deserved. Highlight of the 2nd half was probably the amount of abuse Rotherhams #24, Chris Sedgwick got. If I remember rightly he fouled Clichy and came in for some right stick. Bad thing was he set up Byfield for his ladt minute header (good cross and finish though), but it wasnt so bad because we got about another 45 minutes worth of entertainment ;D
Into extra time we went and within minutes Rotherham were down to 10. The very fast Quincy broke through, and attempted to lob the onrushing goalkeeper Pollitt. His shot was actually quite weak, but Pollitt threw up and arm and had to go. Unfortunately Ronnie Moore decided to sacrifice Sedgwick, so that was the end of the stick for him, and brought on their sub keeper Gary Montgomery. Rest of the 1st extra time period was pretty uneventful.
2nd half was a bit better but we wasnt really too eager to press for a winner. We had a goal disallowed through Wiltord, and Edu had a stunning free kick met by an equally good save from Montgomery. So, it came to penalties
Swailes stepped up first in front of the North Bank and scored to put Rotherham 1-0 up. Wiltord then missed, at this point his confidence must have been so low and I felt really bad for him. Rotherham then went 2-0 up before Edu scored to reduce the deficit. Rotherham substitute Mullins then missed and Aliadiere levelled it up. Rotherham then scored again before Cygan stepped forward and slotted his penalty low to the left of the keeper and into the bottom corner and a sigh of relief was breathed. Byfield then hit the bar for the visitors, so we had the chance to win it, but the pacey Quincy saw his penalty saved. Sudden death was upon us
Each penalty was scored here, most notably a top corner beauty from Spicer, an equally good penalty from the Rotherham keeper Montgomery and one from our own Graham Stack made sure things were level at 8-8. Back to the beginning we went. Swailes stepped forward for Rotherham but this time Stack was equal to him and saved his penalty. And so to Sylvain Wiltord. If we needed anyone to put this away, it was him, and he did. Struck low into the bottom left hand corner. Hopefully this will do his confidence the world of good
Match ratings
Stack - Made a few good saves but looked dodgy at times - 6 (out of 10)
Hoyte - Fairly solid performance - 7
Tavlaridis - MOM in my opinion. Had a very solid game. Great in the air, won alot of tackles - 8
Cygan - Didnt do anything stupid, which is a bonus - 7
Clichy - I didnt feel he was that great but at the same he wasnt **** - 6
Cesc - Grew in confidence throughout. I really hope he lives up to the hype - 7
Edu - Had some good moments - 7
Thomas - Looked good on the left, pretty fast and tricky - 7
Captain Kanu - Did OK but his problem is he doesnt know when hes done too much. Got an assist, even if he didnt mean it - 6.5
Wiltord - Was pretty ineffective, but scored the winning penalty - 6
Aliadiere - Constant threat up front, very pacy. He or Wiltord should start on Saturday - 8
Subs
Smith (for Thomas) - Did as well as Thomas did, but hes left footed, so that will work for him I think - 7
Quincy (for Cesc) - Looked a handful also, very fast and a box of tricks - shame he missed his penalty - 6.5
Spicer (for Hoyte) - Didnt really have much to do - 6