A Quick Look At September

Rotherham United are now well into October but let’s have a quick reminder of what happened last month.

September began with loan signing Will Grigg, who joined hours earlier, saying he wanted to get his goals into double figures for the Millers and during the month he scored twice, his debut goal being in the EFL Trophy and his first league goal came at the end of the month in our win over Wimbledon.

We also found out that former Rotherham midfielder Shaun MacDonald then with Crewe decided to retire. Later in the month another former Miller Kari Arnason also decided it was time to hang-up his boots.

Our first game of the month came in the Papa John Trophy at home to Doncaster Rovers when goals came from Mickel Miller, Freddie Ladapo, Grigg, Jake Hull and Joe Mattock plus an own goal giving Rotherham a six-nil win.

The next game was also at home but didn’t go so well. Callum Morton put Fleetwood Town in front on twenty-four minutes with Michael Smith equalising for the hosts. Four minutes into time added on in the first half Chieo Ogbene won a penalty which Kieran Sadlier put away to make it two-one to the Millers. The visitors had early chances in the second half before Gerard Garner made it two-all. A Danny Andrew free-kick flew into the net to make it two-three and after Viktor Johansson brought off a good save from Garner eight minutes later the ball fell to Camps who gave Fleetwood a four-two win. Millers Manager Paul Warne declared it the ‘worst performance of the season’.

A Tuesday night game at Sincil Bank saw Rotherham come away with a point, although they definitely deserved much more. Michael Smith put the visitors in front on twenty-two minutes and Lewis Florini got an equaliser ten minutes into the second half with only some good goalkeeping from Josh Griffiths keeping Rotherham at bay

University of Bolton Stadium was the next place the Millers visited when two goals in three minutes from Ben Wiles gave the Millers all three points with the Rotherham born midfielder saying he was buzzing after the game.

Back to the New York Stadium for the next game which saw Crewe Alexandra in town. Ollie Rathbone opened the scoring for the hosts on fifty-four minutes and it looked like we’d hang on for the win until Wes Harding pulled back Chris Parker on the ninetieth minute and after some hesitation referee Allison pointed to the spot and gave Harding a second yellow and his marching orders. Porter picked himself up and scored from the spot to give Crewe a point.

The last game of the month saw AFC Wimbledon at the New York Stadium. Will Grigg scored his first league goal on thirty-six minutes to put the hosts in front with Dan Barlaser making it two-nil going into half-time. Ben Wiles made it three-nil in the final minute of the game and another three points were added to the League One table for Rotherham United.

Rotherham United started September in eighth place with nine points and ended the month with seventeen points and in fifth place. So, I think we can agree, although there have been a couple of ‘iffy’ score lines it wasn’t a bad month for the Millers.