County 3 Rotherham 1

Four straight wins for Dave Challinor’s promotion chasers

Apr 16, 2025

Wednesday 16 April 2025

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NEXT HOME GAME: Huddersfield Town – Monday 21 April, 3pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Peterborough United – Friday 18 April, 3pm

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Rotherham supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Wednesday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

Matt from New York Talk joined us last week, and offered the following prediction: “I think Saturday will be a step too far and you’ll edge it 2-1. We’ll make life difficult for you, but I don’t think we’ll have enough in the tank.” Fairly accurate, eh? He clearly knows his onions, so we thought we’d invite him back for our match report as well.

Jack Street provides the County view from Saturday. When he’s not writing about April victories at Edgeley Park, Jack can be found on stage with The Beavers, the North West’s favourite rock and pop covers band. They’re at Woodford Live in July. Click here for tickets.

Today’s edition is sponsored by That Cat Flap Company. A big thank you to Matthew.

Thanks also to Rotherham Eats who sponsor our Rotherham United content on the website. Treat yourself to a takeaway tonight!

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 253.75 miles

Total steps so far: 418,084

Total raised so far: £2,302

Total completed streets so far: 474 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

Photo courtesy of Mike Petch

✍️ Saturday’s match in one word

Jack: Exciting.

Matt: Predictable.

🤔 Pre-match thoughts

Jack: I felt that this would be a tough game. Rotherham have really picked up form of late since sacking that useless lump of lard Evans and I thought we could potentially underestimate them. I wasn't nervous though – this season has been a dream, really.

Matt: I thought it would be a close game and hoped we would be able to nick something but I was worried that our players would not have the legs to keep up with one of the league’s best sides.

🧐 Post-match thoughts

Jack: Just another powerful County performance, wasn't it?

Matt: That the game played out how I was worried it might. We were very good until County’s equaliser. We were solid out of possession and a good threat in possession. We didn’t react well enough to the equaliser and started to make a few mistakes which lead to the second goal, and after that County took the game away from us.

🔵 Verdict on County

Jack: We had a dicey start, but settled and kept pressing Rotherham. The goal from Diamond was "Barry-esque" and the second half performance we just moved up a gear and rolled them over. Top performance once again.

Matt: We saw how good County can be in the early stages of the game at our place. We were able to stifle that during the first half on Saturday but when you started to knock the ball around with confidence in the second half it became clear how good you can be.

🔴 Verdict on Rotherham

Jack: Rotherham looked quite impressive, moved the ball about quite well and took the game to us when they had to. You could see why they have had an average season though – as soon as we put them under some sustained pressure they folded a bit.

Matt: Very happy with our first half performance. We scored a good goal and looked solid. The second half was very frustrating. Your second goal was avoidable from stopping the cross and defending the ball in better. We saw a few bad habits creep back in from earlier in the season, but we’ll blame that on fatigue from our recent run of games and lack of players available.

🎩 Top Hatter

Jack: Jack Diamond. Sponsors got it right for once. He’s been in and out all season (not sure if that’s a fitness thing given he was out for some time last year) but he looks sharp and full of confidence now.

Matt: I thought Jayden Fevrier was very good. He lacked the end product occasionally but he’s quick and I always felt he was a threat whenever he was involved in the play.

🔴 Top Miller

Jack: I thought their 6, James, was the pick for them – always looking to drive them forward on the wing.

Matt: I thought it was a good team performance rather than any individual standing out. If I had to pick one I would probably go for Mallik Wilks. Scored the goal and was able to cause a few problems, but as ever it was frustrating he wasn’t able to do a little more.

👂 Atmosphere

Jack: Atmosphere was good, helped by the warm weather and a few beers beforehand. We're still under watch from the Pop Side stewards so any standing is quickly stamped out, which continues to affect the atmosphere there. Decent following from Rotherham and they certainly enjoyed their early goal. They also had a few who decided at 3-1 to head off out, but not before shouting at the gate into the (checks notes) family stand.

Matt: The atmosphere amongst Millers is still decent. This game was always earmarked as the biggest test for Matt Hamshaw during the run-in and we didn’t disgrace ourselves. It was one of our better followings of the season.

🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season

Jack: Play-offs are a dead cert now. Results above us keep us in the automatic race but we’re running out of games for that. This has been one of the most relaxing seasons I can remember at County but they’re going to put us through the mill in the play-offs, aren't they?

Matt: To try and continue that first half performance. We can’t go up or down so we just need to see more positive play and hopefully pick up enough points for a top half finish.

😀 Best part of the day

Jack: Seeing so many County fans just enjoying a great performance in the sunshine. Marvellous stuff.

Matt: After the game I went to play cards with some friends and won! Didn’t make up for losing the match but softened the blow a little.

😡 Worst part of the day

Jack: Seeing that ref from the Northampton game in charge. He's still hopeless, but at least it was for both teams.

Matt: The defeat. A win would have meant more party times in the away end which would have been special.

The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 3-1 victory at home to Rotherham United on Saturday 12 April, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…

3.10pm: Shit.

3.11pm: To be fair, Touray only had about ten seconds to get goal-side of the scorer there.

3.43pm: Diamond shining brightly! Great goal.

3.44pm: Louie who?

3.48pm: I was in the queue getting a pie and a beer.

3.51pm: Thought we played well that half. Good response to their goal. We didn’t panic but kept pushing in a controlled way.

4.18pm: Brad Hills at the far post! Brilliant cross from Bailey.

4.34pm: Wootton! Cracking run and finish.

5.09pm: What an excellent and deserved win that was. Cool, calm, collected, silently determined after going a goal down. 42 games down; four, six or seven to go. Let's keep plugging away and see how far we get.

Keep your cat cosy while the weather’s still cold!

We’re into April now, but we’ve still had a couple of miserable days this week. With the weather still a bit nippy from time to time, make sure your pet can come and go as they please – without letting the chill in! A professionally installed cat flap ensures your pet stays warm, dry and happy.

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Photo of the day

Bask, Stockport

A couple of County fans in Christmas hats the last time we played Peterborough, five days before Christmas Day.

Treat yourself to a dessert from Skoopz tonight!

Any Rotherham fans (or indeed any of our readers from South Yorkshire) joining us today? If you’re in the mood for a treat tonight, get stuck into a dessert from Skoopz – the latest place to open on Rotherham Eats.

From rich traditional sweets to creamy ice creams, gooey cookie doughs, and indulgent desserts that’ll satisfy every sweet craving – they’ve got it ALL!

➡️ Download the Rotherham Eats app to place an order.