Saturday 4th October 2014 Skybet Championship
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Norwich City FC V Rotherham United
Last season: No corresponding fixture
Striker Kyle Lafferty should return to the Norwich squad after missing their midweek loss through sickness.
Winger Nathan Redmond is nursing a tight hamstring but he is expected to be available.
Millers striker Luciano Becchio is ineligible to play against his parent club while Kirk Broadfoot rolled an ankle on
Tuesday.
Midfielder Richie Smallwood is likely to be in the squad after a recent hamstring problem.
Last five league matches: Norwich W W D W L; Rotherham D L D L W
Top scorers: (in all competitions) Cameron Jerome (Norwich) 6 Lewis Grabban (Norwich) 6; Luciano Becchio (Rotherham) 2 Jordan Bowery (Rotherham)
Match odds: H 8-15 A 9-2 D 14-5
Referee: Phil Gibbs (West Midlands)
Hopefully Lafferty will come up with the goods today If selected as our regular starting 11 seems to be getting fatigued .
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On loan striker Becchio has started well for Rotherham but will not feature against us today as part of the loan agreement .
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Another player pushing for a start is Josh Murphy after his classy finish and first league goal last weekend against Blackpool.
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Rotherham United travel to Carrow Road for the first time in eleven years to take on Norwich City.
That game was a two-nil win for the Canaries with Clint Easton and Mark Rivers scoring the goals before half-time. Chris Sedgwick and Martin McIntosh were booked although later on referee Neale Barry admitted that he had booked the wrong player with Stewart Talbot later having a yellow added to his record. But Martin McIntosh was actually given a red card on sixty-six minutes.
Teams That Day
Norwich City
Green
Edworthy
Mackay
Easton
Fleming
Drury
Francis
Rivers
Holt
Nielson (Abbey)
McVeigh (Hammond)
Subs not used - Crichton, Mulryne, Henderson
Rotherham United
Pollitt
S Barker
McIntosh
Minto
Swailes
Daws
Sedgwick
Talbot
Garner (Monkhouse)
Robins (Byfield)
R Barker (Branston)
Subs not used - Jones, Warne
The last time the Millers won at Carrow Road was in April 1966 when both teams were in the Old Division Two. Frank Casper scored both goals for the visitors.
The teams first met at Carrow Road on Bonfire Night in 1960 when a goal for the Millers for Brian Sawyer couldn't stop the Canaries win three-one.
Of the twenty-four league games the pair have played in Rotherham have won eight to Norwich City's nine.
League Games - Millers v Canaries
League One
17.01.2004 Rotherham 4-4 Norwich
16.08.2003 Norwich 2-0 Rotherham
11.01.2003 Norwich 1-1 Rotherham
13.08.2002 Rotherham 1-1 Norwich
05.03.2002 Norwich 0-0 Rotherham
15.09.2001 Rotherham 1-1 Norwich
Division Two (Old)
10.02.1968 Norwich 2-2 Rotherham
30.09.1967 Rotherham 1-3 Norwich
11.02.1967 Norwich 1-0 Rotherham
01.10.1966 Rotherham 2-1 Norwich
12.04.1966 Rotherham 2-1 Norwich
11.04.1966 Norwich 1-2 Rotherham
19.12.1964 Norwich 3-0 Rotherham
29.08.1964 Rotherham 4-0 Norwich
01.02.1964 Rotherham 4-0 Norwich
21.09.1963 Norwich 2-2 Rotherham
23.02.1963 Norwich 4-2 Rotherham
05.10.1962 Rotherham 0-3 Norwich
20.01.1962 Norwich 0-1 Rotherham
09.09.1961 Rotherham 3-1 Norwich
25.03.1961 Rotherham 0-2 Norwich
05.11.1960 Norwich 3-1 Rotherham
As the record states we have not lost to Rotherham in 48 years so anything other than a victory today would be a disaster as a win would surely keep us top through the International break.
We are the early pace setters in this division and it`s getting a bit piled up near the top so winning against the lower placed sides is vital if we have serious ambitions in regards to automatic promotion.
The form of our two main strikers is a hot topic as both can be wasteful in front of goals especially Grabban with many calling for a change to the outdated 4 4 2 formation and a lone striker, below are the stats so far .
Stats for Jerome .
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/10737
Stats for Grabban.
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/19736/
If we are to drop one of these two today it would be Grabban if we go by ratings he scored a total of 7.19 and Jerome scored a total of 7.53 but this doesn`t tell the whole story as Jerome joined us after a few games in .
Another change could be made with our 2 holding midfielders in Johnson and Tettey with the possibility of replacing one with a more box to box midfielder like Howson or Vadis, so who should be the one to make way?
Stats for Johnson
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/12490/
Stats for Tettey
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/9342/
Bradley Johnson narrowly edges Tettey 7.39 to 7.31 so he should be the lone holding midfielder if changes are made.
There Is also the question of the left wing position with Wes arguably our best player creatively going head to head with Josh Murphy the young England teenager staking his claim also banging on the door is Kyle Lafferty as this is his best position too, despite the Northern Ireland player looking more suited as a center forward physically
A 32 year old versus a 19 year old let`s get the stats so far, obviously this will not be conclusive as Murphy has not had much game time but Hoolahan is rated 7.19 and Lafferty 6.58
Stats for Hoolahan
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/19541/
Stats for Lafferty
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/13841/