Millers Match Zone

A Quick Look Back At Last Season – March

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Rotherham United were promoted at the end of the season – but how did they do it . . .

MARCH

The first day of March saw the Millers travel to take on Shrewsbury Town and come away with a point from a goalless draw.

Rotherham entertained MK Dons at the New York Stadium in the next game which saw Dan Harvie foul Chieo Ogbene in the area and see red for his trouble. Dan Barlaser scored the resulting penalty, the Millers going into the break in the lead. Harry Darling equalised for the visitors on fifty-seven minutes and still shell shocked a rare mistake from Barlaser saw the ball taken off him by David Kasuma and after flying up the pitch he crossed to Mohamed Eisa who curled the ball into the net giving the Dons all three points.

Millers Manager Paul Warne said his team didn’t create enough and that he ‘thought we played with too much fear’.

Our next game saw Rotherham travel to Victoria Park to take on Hartlepool in the semi-final of the Papa John’s Trophy. It didn’t start well for the visitors when Joe Grey got on the end of a free-kick and scored for Hartlepool but a cross from Dan Barlaser saw Michael Smith rise highest and level it up for the Millers. Just five minutes later the hosts were back in front when Luke Molyneux put ‘Pools back in front but on sixty-three minutes Smith was there again to put a cross from Chieo Ogbene into the net to send the tie to penalties. Rotherham won five-four on spot-kicks to take them to a Wembley final.

Just after this game Paul Warne was named the Sky Bet League One Manager of the Month for February.

Back to the league and the Millers travelled to Buckinghamshire to take on Wycombe Wanderers. It was a drab goalless draw at Adams Park with Michael Smith seeing a shot tipped over the crossbar and Wycombe’s Anthony Stewart heading late on into the side netting being the only two bright spots in the game.

‘We didn’t take our chances,’ Paul Warne said after his time gained an away point.

The next game was a Tuesday night affair at the New York Stadium which saw Lincoln City the visitors. Ben Wiles opened the scoring for the Millers on eleven minutes with Chieo Ogbene doubling the score two minutes later. The Imps halved the deficit on eight-one minutes when some sloppy defending let Tom Hopper get to a ball from Bramall and score. A tale of two halves saw the Millers get the points.

Shrewsbury Town were the next visitors to the New York Stadium and they went in front on twenty-six minutes thanks to a Daniel Udoh goal. Two minutes later Angus MacDonald went for an early bath after tangling with Luke Leahy, the referee saying he used an elbow. Rotherham appealed for a penalty after Joshua Kayode appeared to be fouled in the box but referee Anthony Backhouse wasn’t interested. The eleven men of Shrewsbury went on to score two more in the second half, one from Elliott Bennett with Ryan Bowman getting the third.

After the rare home loss Paul Warne firstly blamed himself and said it had been a ‘bad day at the office.’

Due to international call-ups this was the final game of March which saw two home defeats, two goalless draws, a league win and an away penalty shoot-out win which took us to Wembley.

Dan Barlaser won February’s Sky Bet League One Goal of the Month for his cracking volley against Accrington Stanley.

The Millers finished March still in top place but the lead was cut to one point with Wigan in second place on seventy-nine and two games in hand.

Vital Rotherham’s Man of the Month was goalkeeper Josh Vickers, for the second month running.

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