10 Men Millers lose to Gills

Rotherham United suffered their worst defeat of the season at the Priestfield today, as Simon King, Adam Miller, Gary Richards and Luis Cumbers gave the home side a four-nil victory.

The Millers couldn’t have had a worse start when on six minutes, a Nicky Southall cross found the head of King who put it past Andy Warrington to open the scoring. Ten minutes later, at the other end, Omar Garcia found Micky Cummins in the box but his shot went well wide of the goal. A few minutes later a Danny Harrison cross into the box was just too long for an incoming Richie Barker to get on the end of. On the half-hour mark, Simon Royce pulled off a brilliant save from Nick Fenton when he tipped the defenders shot over the bar. And, as the Millers started to get into the game, disaster struck. Barry Fuller and Danny Harrison went for a fifty-fifty ball but referee Beeby deemed that Harrison’s two-footed challenge on the Gills captain to be reckless and showed him a red card. With a couple of minutes to go before the break, the home side had an appeal for a penalty turned down when Andy Warrington caught Adam Miller and the player went sprawling in the box. Mark Hudson had then had a chance to pull one back for the Millers but his effort was saved by Royce at the second attempt.

The Millers came out the better for the second half and Reuben Reid found himself free on the right and was just about to shoot for goal when he appeared to be tripped. But, referee Beeby, produced a yellow card for the Millers striker for diving. The home side then doubled their lead when a fierce shot was well saved by Warrington but it rebounded to Miller who slotted it into an empty net. Ten minutes later the Millers should have scored when Mark Hudson found Richie Barker but the ball seemed to get under his feet and went wide. Barker was then replaced by Drewe Broughton and with his first touch of the ball headed towards goal but Royce tipped it onto the bar and it rolled out to safety. Gillingham’s fourth goal came when John Nutter crossed the ball towards goal and Cumbers bundled it over the line to leave the Millers dead and buried.