PREVIEW: Rotherham United (H)

Hull City open the 2012/13 season with a 1st Round League Cup tie against Rotherham United. While an away draw would have been preferable, making The Tigers the first competitive visitors to Rotherham’s new New York Stadium, it will be nice for City to start the season with a home game and one that should be relatively low-key. It’s also nice to see the League Cup in the spotlight. The competition remains vital to teams at the bottom end of the scale and hopefully a Saturday afternoon kick-off will ensure a decent crowd at the KC.

The Tigers haven’t glittered during pre-season and look like a team in transition at the moment. The team will have a familiar look about it but they are adapting to a new system and a new playing style under Steve Bruce. The KC Stadium pitch is in great condition after the troubles of last season and will suit a quick passing game if City can get things together in the right areas.

Rotherham are much changed this season after a major summer overhaul of the playing staff by their detestable manager Steve Evans. Rotherham showed their ambition by luring Evans from Crawley Town and despite the loss of Lewis Grabban, to Bournemouth, look set to be one of the pace setters in the bottom tier. Rotherham are keen to get out of League Two having spent 5 seasons trying and will be desperate to take advantage of their return “home”.

Tigers team news
Summer signings Abdoulaye Faye, Ben Amos, Alex Bruce and Nick Proschwitz could all make their competitive debuts for Hull City. Andy Dawson and Corry Evans are unlikely to recover from knocks suffered in pre-season. Eldin Jakupovic and Sone Aluko require international clearance before they can play for City and Steve Bruce is not confident that this will be granted in time for either to face Rotherham.

Millers team news
Rotherham have eleven summer signings in the frame for a competitive debut. Steve Evans has signed Goalkeeper Scott Shearer (Crawley), Defenders Ian Sharps (Shrewsbury) and Laurence Wilson (Morecambe), midfielders Michael O'Connor (Scunthorpe), Kari Arnason (Aberdeen) and David Noble (Exeter), tricky winger Lionel Ainsworth (Shrewsbury) and strikers Daniel Nardiello (Exeter), Kayode Odejayi (Colchester) and Kieran Agard (Yeovil). The eleventh signing full back Nicky Hunt (Preston) is unlikely to feature along with Dale Tonge.

Danger Man
Evans has made plenty of signings this summer and the majority are good players with experience in League One and League Two. The Tigers have struggled against big centre forwards at times in the past few seasons and Kayode Odejayi certainly fits that category. He’s a questionable finisher who’s career will probably be defined by that miss in the FA Cup Semi-final between Barnsley and Cardiff but is a man-mountain who’ll make life difficult for defenders and create openings for his strike partner.

All-time record vs. Rotherham

Played 69, Won 24, Drawn 18, Lost 27. Scored 89, conceded 95.

All-time home record vs. Rotherham

Played 35, Won 16, Drawn 8, Lost 11. Scored 55, conceded 50.

Highest home attendance vs. Rotherham

50,040 – Saturday 27th January 1951 – FA Cup 4th Round. Hull City won 2-0 with goals from Raich Carter and Ken Harrison.

Lowest home attendance vs. Rotherham

2,205 – Tuesday 18th August 1981 – Member’s Trophy 1st Round. Rotherham won 1-0.

Last 5 vs. Rotherham

Division 3 – Hull City 1 Rotherham United 0 – Saturday 9th January 1999

A vital win for Warren Joyce’s Tigers, then bottom of the football league and 6 points adrift of Scarborough, that kick started the fabled “Great Escape”. Cardiff City loanee Mark Bonner scored the winning goal in front of 5,575 at Boothferry Park.

YouTube video (1min) - Uploaded by TigerTubeAmberNectar



League Cup Round 1 Leg 1 – Rotherham United 0 Hull City 1 – Tuesday 8th August 1999
After escaping relegation the previous season, Joyce’s new-look Tigers suffered a 1-0 defeat at Exeter City to open the new campaign. This impressive away win at Millmoor followed with John Eyre scoring the only goal, and his first City goal, in front of the travelling support.

League Cup Round 1 Leg 2 – Hull City 2 Rotherham United 0 – Tuesday 24th August 1999
The Tigers set-up a mouth-watering 2nd round tie against Liverpool with a comfortable victory at Boothferry Park. Colin Alcide and David Brown scored the goals in front of a crowd of 4,373. The crowd was more than double when Liverpool came to Hull the following month. Lee Bracey managed to last 180 minutes against The Millers without conceding a goal or being sent off making Rotherham’s attack the worst in the history of league football.

Division 3 – Hull City 0 Rotherham United 0 – Saturday 6th November 1999
The Tigers were held to a goalless draw by league leaders Rotherham despite the visitors playing for an hour with ten men. Guy Branston, who was the man sent off, would miss several weeks of football after he punched a door in the Boothferry Park dressing room and his arm went through it and also the plate glass behind it.

YouTube Video (10mins) - Uploaded by TigerTubeAmberNectar 

Division 3 – Rotherham United 3 Hull City 0 – Tuesday 7th March 2000
Rotherham marched towards promotion from Division 3 (finishing 2nd) while The Tigers nose-dived. The season promised so much following the “Great Escape” but, despite a late revival, City finished 14th and Warren Joyce was sacked before the season ended and replaced by Brian Little.

Rick’s XI for Rotherham

(4-4-2)
Amos
McShane – Chester – Faye – Dudgeon
Stewart – McKenna – Cairney – Koren
Proschwitz – Fryatt


Please feel free to leave a prediction for the score and first goalscorer in the comments. I’ll give anyone who is spot-on a name-check in the match report.