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LDV Vans Trophy 2^nd Round 22/11/05

Rotherham United 1-2 Macclesfield Town

With Bury eliminated from this years LDV trophy, it gave me and Stu chance to visit another new ground on our quest for the 92. Rotherham was the chosen destination, and we set off from Bury at 5.30. We joined the M66 and continued to the M62. It was very foggy and visibility was very poor, but traffic was as normal. We arrived in Rotherham and parked up in the visiting supporter’s car park. There were only 2 cars in it, so we weren’t expecting Macclesfield to bring many supporters! We walked through a large industrial estate and around the back of the away end to the ticket office. We purchased two tickets behind the home goal. I had to give my name and address to purchase them, and having to explain I didn’t support Rotherham was baffling to the woman in the office! We duly entered the ground and sat down. First impressions of Millmoor were not great; the ground is a bit of a mixture of open seating and former open seating with roofs added. One side of the pitch was a building site, the main stand currently being rebuilt. The game kicked off, and to say the first half was poor was a slight understatement. Rotherham lead through the only meaningful shot from either side and it was freezing cold sat watching too! The second half started in the same vein, until Macc made a substitution, bringing a wide player on and changing their formation. All of a sudden it became a good game to watch, Macc started bossing the game and equalised when the substitute skinned the left back and crossed for Parkin to equalise. For all Macc’s extra possession, it looked like the game would go to extra time, but a Macclesfield free kick on the edge of the box was well placed into the far corner for the winner, though the keeper should have saved it. The 40 or so Macc fans went wild, and although Rotherham pushed for an equaliser it never really looked likely and Macc went through to the next round. We left the stadium, walked back to the car and drove home, arriving back just after 11pm

Glenn