Home Loss For Millers

Rotherham United 1 Preston North End 2
Odoffin (35)                     Cannon (23), Evans (45+2)

Rotherham United’s week didn’t get any better as they racked up their second loss of the week this evening under the lights at the New York Stadium.

The Millers had a chance in the opening minutes when some neat work from Tariqe Fosu found Chieo Ogbene the winger twisting and sending a ball in which just by passed Jordan Hugill in the middle. A foul on Ogbene saw the hosts get a free-kick which Fosu struck hitting the side netting before the Brentford loanee sent a cross for Hugill who in turn found Ogbene before he sent it to Hakeem Odoffin who won a corner which found it’s way to Fosu who slipped and Preston took the ball down field. Daniel Johnson was given far too much room at the other end and only some good defending from Lee Peltier stopped the ball finding him in a good position. The first yellow of the game went to Odoffin after a foul on Greg Cunningham. On twenty minutes the visitors had a good chance when a pass from Robbie Brady found Alan Browne who saw his shot go wide. Perhaps the Millers should have heeded that warning because three minutes later it was Brady again whose header found Thomas Cannon and the forward, on loan from Everton, put the ball in the net from close range. Rotherham might have equalised a couple of minutes later when Wes Harding crossed high for Hugill but the Millers’ skipper put the ball just over the crossbar. The game then slowed down with yellow shirted players falling down at every chance and taking their time over every free-kick, throw-in, goal-kick before the hosts won a corner which Shane Ferguson took finding that Odoffin had got free of his marker and the Millers number twenty-two headed into the net for the equaliser. Two minutes later Preston thought they had re-taken the lead when a low ball in from Brady came back off a Millers defender only to find Cannon who found the net only to see the offside flag. Ogbene and Cunningham were grappling for the ball when the Preston defender went down and referee Stephen Martin produced a yellow card for the Rotherham man. Pressure from North End finished when Fosu got the ball and cleared to Hugill who tried to set Ogbene up but the ball went behind him and to safety. In time added on Preston won a corner which found Evans who turned and with nobody challenging him had a clear shot at goal to give the visitors the lead for a second time.

Preston set off the better in the second half and Lee Peltier did well to stop a Robbie Brady cross reaching Ched Evans in space and more pressure came on the fiftieth minute when Thomas Cannon put the ball over Millers’ ‘keeper Viktor Johansson only to see the ball hit the crossbar and go out to safety. Before the hour mark Rotherham made three changes with Conor Washington, Tyler Blackett and Cohen Bramall coming on for Shane Ferguson, Wes Harding and Leo Hjelde. Hakeem Odoffin did well to get a foot to a ball when it looked like Ched Evans would score again before a ball into the middle from Robbie Brady was put over by Bambo Diaby. After receiving more treatment Evans was replaced by Troy Parrott whose first job was to foul Conor Coventry giving the Millers a free-kick which came to nothing. More changes for Rotherham saw Conor Coventry and Lee Peltier make way for Jamie Lindsay and Peter Kioso. Some nice work from Jordan Hugill saw him send a ball meant for Washington but the ball was deflected for a corner which Bramall took with the visitors counter-attacking leaving most of the red shirts behind with only Lindsay there to halt the attack. Diaby did well minutes later to get to a Lindsay cross before Washington followed by some nice footwork from Blackett who brought the ball forward before finding Washington who in turn found Hugill but the Millers captain saw the ball go wide. More changes for the visitors saw Robbie Brady, Thomas Cannon and Alan Browne slowly leave the pitch being replaced by Alvvaro Fernandez, Liam Delap and Josh Onomah. Twice Preston got the ball up the pitch and twice Parrott was offside. Kioso had done well since coming on and sent a good cross over for Bramall but his touch wasn’t enough to send the ball goalward. After pulling Ogbene back Brad Potts saw yellow as the board went up for a further six minutes. Ogbene set off on a run again and this time was pulled over by Fernandez who was booked for his trouble. Johansson came up for the resulting free-kick which was taken by Bramall that didn’t bother anyone going straight into the arms of Freddie Woodman in the Preston goal.

Another day another loss. We don’t seem to have the know-how to go forward, the ball was always going back towards our goal and putting our defenders under pressure. Preston have some good crosses of a ball and caused us problems. And we gave them way too much space.

When the snow started I was hoping it would come down ten times quicker and thicker than it did and the game would be called off. Oh well, onto Saturday and Cardiff.

Attendance – 9,003 with 723 Preston fans making the trip

Referee – Steve Martin (no, not the comedian – although . . .)