Wembley relived ... Two-goal Richard Wood looks back on the 2018 play-off final that made him a Rotherham United legend

‘LOOK at ’em. Look at ’em. We’ve got ’em here.’
The morning after ... a picture from Richard Wood's own album as the skipper refuses to be parted from the play-off final trophy at the Hilton HotelThe morning after ... a picture from Richard Wood's own album as the skipper refuses to be parted from the play-off final trophy at the Hilton Hotel
The morning after ... a picture from Richard Wood's own album as the skipper refuses to be parted from the play-off final trophy at the Hilton Hotel

It was Wembley, the sun was beating down, the battle for promotion had reached boiling point.

Rotherham United 1 Shrewsbury Town 1 after 90 minutes. Another 30 would be needed to separate League One’s hardest-working sides in the play-off final of May 27 2018.

Richard Wood was tired. But not that tired. He glanced at the opposition and as Shrews bodies flagged the Millers captain’s optimism soared.

Only one team was going to win it from here.

“I knew that their legs had gone,” Wood recalls. “Their players were on the floor before extra time. Every one of us was stood up. Nobody was getting a massage on the deck. No-one was lying on the turf.”

The centre-half had already scored and would do so again before the final whistle. Rotherham United 2 Shrewsbury 1. The stadium glowed red and white, Wood’s two young sons unfurled a banner in homage to their dad and a place in the Championship was sealed.

The skipper famously dashed towards Jenson, Graye and partner Jade after steering home the winner, ignoring the outstretched hand of manager Paul Warne as he made his careering, crazy-eyed way down the touchline.

“I’ll always remember that run,” he grins. “My first goal, I don’t know why I didn’t go to my boys. It was probably just the excitement of scoring. The second one, I knew it was the winner. I could feel it. I thought: ‘That’s it, we’ve won now.’ That’s why I ran all that way to see them.

“The Gaffer still jokes with me to this day about how I ran straight past him but I have no recollection of it. I’ve seen the footage and it appears as if I’m running towards him but I can honestly say I never even saw him.

“I wasn’t running anywhere else than to my boys and Jade, although it does look on TV as if I’ve ‘pied’ the boss.”

Wood had been the wrecking ball whose leadership had underpinned the Millers’ surge up the table in the second half of the season, the mean, hard-nosed f*cker who had bricks thrown at him and headed the f*ckers back.

‘Richard Wood is magic’ had become the soundtrack of the campaign and hats exalting his powers of sorcery were out in force at the national stadium.

“The fans were brilliant,” he says. “Loads of supporters were wearing them. After the game, I had to do all the interviews so I didn’t get to go round the pitch with the lads and celebrate with the fans. I did it on my own later.

“I’ve still got one. It’s in my loft. I’ve got a few spares as well. It’s always the question people ask me when I’m out: ‘Where’s your magic hat?’”

1-0 Rotherham as Wood scores his first goal

The build-up to the game had been the lull before the Wood-inspired storm.

“We were staying in a nice hotel called The Grove. It had its own golf course,” the defender recollects. “We trained in Rotherham the day before the match and then set off.

“Fulham’s 1-0 Championship Play-off Final win over Aston Villa was on TV when we got there so we watched that in the afternoon. At night time, it was the Champions League Final. Liverpool lost to Real Madrid. A lot of the lads watched that in the communal room we had.

“I woke up on the morning of the game and just went through my normal routine. I didn’t want to change anything. I went down and had porridge for breakfast around 9am. I had coffee as well. Plenty of coffee. The club had pushed the boat out and we all had our own rooms rather than sharing.

“I felt focused, not nervous. I was just looking forward to the day. The mood in the camp was good. Spirits are high because you’ve just got through the play-off semi-final.

“We had a walk round the golf course at 11.15 and for my pre-match meal I had my usual: eggs, beans and toast.

“Before we set off to the stadium, The Gaffer showed videos for everybody. We always have a team meeting before we get on the bus and when we went in the room he’d got all the players’ families to do good-luck messages and that kind of thing.

“My two boys did one and they were giving messages to all the other lads, saying they hoped so and so scored and all that. They didn’t really say anything about me until they told me they loved me at the end.

“We’re big, strong, macho men, aren’t we, but we were properly moved by the videos. I don’t think there were any tears but you could see some of the lads having to bite their lips and hold it in.

“You don’t want to get too emotional when there are still two hours to go before kick-off. The Gaffer warned against that. He told us not to let it peak now but during the game.”

And how Rotherham peaked when it mattered. Honours may have been even at the close of the second half but Warne’s side had dominated and driven a brave Shrewsbury towards submission.

An entire season now came down to half an hour. The Millers were tired. But not that tired.

“You could see that Shrewsbury were drained,” Wood says. “I pointed it out to the lads and The Gaffer mentioned it as well. It was a red-hot day. You could see by the body language of the two sides that we were in a better state.”

Certainly in a better state than teammate Jon Taylor had been before kick-off.

“Tayls was so wound up and desperate to do well that he got cramp before we even went out to play!” Wood smiles. “Everybody reacts differently. That’s Tayls for you. He’s like a Duracel bunny that keeps going the whole time.

“It was my first experience of the new Wembley. The changing rooms weren’t anything unbelievable. They were done out quite nicely but they weren’t particularly plush. They were big. There was a massive physio section and there were separate rooms for the gaffer and stuff like that.

“I went round and had words with certain lads at certain times. I was a calm head and that was the feeling I was trying to pass on.

“My missus and boys weren’t calm, mind. Jade says the boys were crying in the morning because they were so desperate for me to win. They were just worried. It was an emotional day for them, seeing their dad play at Wembley.

“All week they’d been colouring in this big banner saying ‘Daddy Wood is magic’. They had it at Wembley and it got on Sky TV. It was on our dining-room table all week before the game. I kept away from it. Jade and the boys did all the work.”

After David Ball’s spot-kick had been saved, Rotherham went in front with a trademark 32nd-minute header from their skipper and the Shrews drew level in the 53rd minute through Alex Rodman, leaving the stage set for a legend to emerge.

“We started well,” Wood says. “When we got that early penalty I thought: ‘This is on here. This is our game.’

“I was brought down for the penalty as I went for the ball at a corner and I was thinking: ‘They don’t know what to do here. They can’t mark me.’

“Even though we missed the penalty I knew we’d score against them. As soon as the next corner came, it was the same story — they couldn’t get near me.

“The first goal, it was a routine we’d worked on: that walk over the ‘D’. We’d march up slowly and then when we reached the edge of the box we’d all sprint in. We’d done it quite a lot that season. We still do it now in certain games.

“Shrewsbury’s players weren’t coming near us. They didn’t know whether to come right out of the box and mark us or wait for us to run in on them.

Victory sealed with a kiss

“I altered my run. I was going back behind my man (Omar Beckles) and then I went in front of him and Newelly (Joe Newell) put in a great ball. I just nodded it in.

“The equaliser was a blow. It was a good set-piece but it was so cheap from us, defending wise, that we let it happen.

“As for the winner  ... right foot off, I dunno, my toe or bottom of my boot. I saw the ball late. Newelly had put in a good delivery again from a free-kick. I was pointing where I wanted him to put it and I just had to stay onside.

“My marker was a striker who’d come on as a substitute. Forwards aren’t known for being great at defending and I managed to lose him. I watched the flight off the ball but I was expecting someone to head it clear or touch it.

“The ball missed a lot of people to reach me and bounced at my feet, I just instinctively stuck my leg out and in the ball went, just inside the far post.”

Rotherham had restored their lead, Rotherham were up. Shattered Shrews bodies were scattered on the floor again, stretched out as they had been 13 minutes earlier at the end of normal time when a warrior’s words had shown the way to victory in The Richard Wood Final.

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TWO-GOAL hero Richard Wood was a pooper at his own party on the day he helped Rotherham United win promotion to the Championship at Wembley.

The Millers celebrated into the night following their 2-1 triumph over Shrewsbury Town 2-1 in the 2018 League One Play-off Final.

But Wood, struggling with two injuries sustained during the clash and suddenly hit by fatigue, admits he wasn’t the best of company in the aftermath of an epic contest.

The Rotherham captain takes up the story:

“I had to do a lot of interviews when I got down the players’ tunnel and they took ages. All the lads had showered and gone across the road to the Hilton Hotel where we were staying that night. The club had sorted out the players and their families.

“I showered on my own and Wembley was dead when I finally came out of the dressing room. I’d hyper-extended my knee — that had swelled up massively — and I’d broken my toe. That slowed me up as well.

“I’ve just scored two goals at Wembley, got promoted and I’m all on my own. It was a huge comedown, especially with my knee being so sore. I couldn’t walk properly. I just went on a massive downer.

“My two boys, Jenson and Graye, and my missus, Jade, were in the Club Wembley corporate section waiting for me. When I finally got to them, I wasn’t in a good mood. Jade was going mad at me! I remember her saying: ‘You’ve just scored twice. What are you doing?’

Boss and captain

“I didn’t want to speak to anyone or do anything. My friend, John, was there as well. He was there with his little boy. I just wanted to sit down.

“Everyone was asking me questions and I wasn’t really answering them. I just felt a bit blank. I did snap out of it eventually. I wasn’t like it all night.

“We went across to the Hilton, which was near the stadium, and John carried the trophy because I didn’t want to do anything. We went to the top floor of the Hilton to the bar and I got my first drink of the night in there. John got me a pint of lager.

“I had some ice on my knee. People were coming up asking for pictures but it was hard to get up. I stayed sat down for most of the night and had a good drink and a chat with everybody but I was still drained. It felt strange. I wasn’t bothered about getting changed and I stayed in my tracksuit.

“A lot of the lads went into London. They’d sorted out a club. Because I had the boys and Jade with me — and I was in a bad mood as well — I didn’t want to go anywhere.

“Quite a few of the lads who had families stayed behind while the younger lads went off into London and enjoyed the night. Even if my family hadn’t been there, I don’t think I could have gone because I was that tired. I was in bed for about midnight. I slept well.

“In footballing terms, it was the best day of my life by a country mile. The play-off win with Sheffield Wednesday at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was good but this was better because I was captain and I’d got my boys there and I’d scored in front of them.

“I made up for my lack of celebrating when we went on holiday that summer. I definitely celebrated properly in Dubai. It was all-inclusive. That helped. There was more than one beer every day!”