Miller Time

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Sunday 25 May 2014 at Wembley
Result	Leyton Orient 2 Rotherham United 2 aet Rotherham win 4-3 on penalties
Competition	League One Playoff Final
Hopping	21st visit to the “new” Wembley and I heart playoffs. There, I’ve said it.
Pre-match preparation
Not a lot to be honest.  Generally this game seems to be too close to call with most of the “neutrals” in my Twitter timeline favouring Orient because of the historical unpopularity of Rotherham manager Steve Evans in some quarters.
This match in one sentence
Two down at half-time, Rotherham drew back level and took the lead for the first time in the game with the last, decisive spotkick in the shootout.
So what?
Back-to-back promotions for Rotherham, who will be in the Championship next year, and heartbreak for Orient and their fans.
The drama unfolds
Maybe Rotherham looked marginally stonger and assertive in the first half an hour, but then Orient took control with two goals before the break.  Moses Odubajo hit a screamer from the edge of the area and then got to the byeline to set up a tap-in for Dean Cox.  2-0 at half-time Second half, and enter Alex Revell stage centre.  Always a solid performer for me in CM01-02 in one of my virtual lives as Cambridge manager, he lit up Wembley with a brace of goals.  The first one was a straightforward finish, but the second was a dipping shot from about thirty yards that drew grudging admiration from the Orient end too.  Orient finished strongly, but there were no more goals within the ninety minutes.  2-2 after 90 minutes Both sides will have players who might think they could have won the game in extra time.  It really had been a great spectacle for the neutral, and the fact that it went to a shootout was no great surprise.  Orient took an early lead after Rotherham’s second penalty was saved, but after Orient missed their fourth penalty Richard Smallwood turned the tie through 180 degrees as he gave Rotherham the 4-3 lead with the fifth spotkick.  This meant Chris Dagnall had to score, but his effort was saved and one half of the stadium erupted.  Cruel, dramatic, compelling, as the final clip shows.  Back for more tomorrow, me.  3-4 in penalty shootout Postscript - only just realised that Alex Revell used to play for Orient. Ouch. That's gotta hurt. Clips: Orient are in red. 1 - First half 2&3 - late Orient pressure before 90 minutes up 4 - almost the end of extra time 5 - the last two spotkicks - credit to the Orient teammate who goes over to Chris Dagnall, who hasn't moved from the penalty spot
Ground Pix
Bobby Moore's Bum. As regular readers know, I am running out of Bobby bits to feature in these blogposts.
Match Pix
Ben Pringle keeps Rotherham in it by making it 2-2 with the third penalty Nathan Clarke makes it 3-2 to Orient James Taverner levels the scores at 3-3 and my stills camera batteries give up ... see clip 5
Huddle Stats
No huddles until the end of 90 minutes, then Orient made the critical error of huddling before the second half of extra-time. 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L GF GA Pts Pts per Game Non-Huddlers 32 16 3 13 54 54 51 1.59 Huddlers 18 6 5 7 20 18 23 1.28 Twin Huddlers 2 0 2 0 3 3 2 1.00 Huddle at HT in ET 1 0 0 1 5 6 0 0.00 2nd Half Huddlers 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0.00
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Purple (Orient) plays Blue (Rotherham). 2013-14 Summary so far: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (5 each) Pts Pts per Game Red 3 2 0 1 3 1 8 2.67 Grey 13 7 2 4 14 5 34 2.62 Green 12 6 1 5 16 3 18 1.50 Purple 2 1 0 1 6 1 2 1.00 Yellow 5 1 2 2 9 1 1 0.20 Blue 6 2 1 3 12 1 0 0.00 Radioactive Bile 4 2 0 2 7 0 -1 -0.25 Orange 3 1 1 1 6 0 -2 -0.67 Pink 7 1 3 3 16 0 -10 -1.43 Maroon 1 0 0 1 2 0 -2 -2.00
What Next?
Burton Albion v Fleetwood tomorrow in the playoff final for League Two.