Away Days - Rotherham Utd (Millmoor)
First Impressions -- Around the ground -- Facilities -- The Stand -- Overall -- Pictures
Fixture: Rotherham
Utd V Preston North End
Competition: Coca Cola Championship
Ground: Millmoor
Date: Saturday 9th April 2005
Kick off: 3.00pm
Final Result: 1-2 Sedgwick, Mawene
My first glimpse of Millmoor came in the form of the fantastic well-positioned floodlights. This is one feature that I miss at so many grounds that no longer have them. Anyway after the strange route to the ground, we got off the coach - we had parked more or less in the middle of a scrap yard! It seemed somewhat odd but intriguing.
We then walked down a long alley that partly ran down the middle of the scrap yard and then down the side of the Millmoor Lane Stand. It was from here that I got my first proper glimpses of the ground in full. It was like a step back in time to how grounds used to be - corrugated iron, long brick wall, long alley etc. It had obviously seen better days.
After getting my first impressions of the ground by walking down the alley, we had enough time on our hands to walk round to the Tivoli End and the Main Stand. This is when I noticed that the rest of the ground didn't fare a great deal better - it seemed very dated and it was very noticeable that the ground hadn't experienced much redevelopment for a number of years (but to be fair that is to change soon with the redevelopment of the Main Stand).
Taking a look at the Main Stand it didn't seem much of a 'main stand' at all and wasn't very imposing, which main stands usually are. I thought the appearance was somewhat spoiled with the portakabin's bolted onto each other (used as executive boxes I understand!). Again to be fair to Rotherham and Millmoor, I have seen far worse stands (namely ones at a club situated next to the M6!)
We then took a walk back towards the Tivoli End after taking a look and taking pics of the main stand. My Dad then went into the club shop to buy an obligatory fridge magnet! (something he has to do wherever he visits!). We then walked back down the alley towards the turnstiles to the Railway End and opted to go in since there wasn't a great deal of time to do much else.
Well for starters, it was quite odd that the turnstiles were actually at the side of the stand - there was a little trek up and round to the back of the stand so we could take our seats! The concourse, well I suppose you could call it an 'open air' one! But luckily the toilets were in a relatively new building which was separate from the stand.
The toilets weren't actually all that bad, but there could have been more considering the following we took. Had to wait quite a while to have a piss! Experienced far worse though.
The catering bar was also in a 'separate building' - two in fact. This didn't bother me, but the coffee did! I had a meat & potato pie which wasn't too bad, but not that special, but the coffee was the worst i've ever tasted! It could be described as heated sewage water - it certainly almost made me throw up!
The stand was obviously an old terrace converted to seating. From what I experienced I would say they've done a very bad job of it that's for sure. The legroom wasn't too bad in fact, but it was other things that bothered me. Firstly, there was a step in between each row of seats - the seat was actually on one step, while you had your feet on the next step below. This caused much discomfort when I fell over after North End's second goal!
Then there was the actual seat itself. I have never sat so low! This made the view equally as bad and was probably the worst i've experienced.
Overall the stand reinforced my thoughts on how much I hate seated stands converted from terracing.
Another enjoyable away trip under my belt - in fact i've not had many unenjoyable away days! The ground had seen better days and the redevelopment that will be underway in the coming months will be much needed and will greatly improve the overall appearance.
Although I found the ground dated and a bit of a dump, it did perhaps have charm although I thought it lost most of it through the loss of terracing (obviously not Rotherham's fault). Despite the aged and dated appearance I have experienced worse (namely the Britannia Stadium). In fact the whole experience of the ground was rather interesting and the Rotherham fans rather friendly.
Ratings
Appearance: 6/10
Facilities: 7/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Fans: 8/10
Away Stand: 5/10
Overall: 7/10
