Injury Time Goal Earns Millers A Point

An own goal and a goal in six minutes of time added on from Reuben Reid saved the Millers blushes at Don Valley this afternoon.

Rochdale were definitely in the driving seat for this game and bullied the home side for much of the afternoon. The away team passed with more accuracy than Rotherham and played better, flowing football. Their first shot on goal came from a free kick and while Andy Warrington was still trying to organise his wall Clark Keltie took the kick quickly. Luckily for the Millers, Warrington was able to move quickly and gather the ball. Adam La Fondre and Simon Ramsden had shots at goal and loanee, Jordan Rhodes saw his header go just wide. Le Fondre had another shot that hit a defender and Adam Rundle got easily past three defenders but his weak shot was straight at Warrington. Sam Russell, in ‘Dale’s goal, had little to do although he made a good save from a Danny Harrison shot and Reuben Reid got him worried with a fierce shot that went just wide. Five minutes before half-time, Will Buckley had a shot at goal that Warrington managed to get a hand to and push away, only for Rhodes to be following up and he hit the ball low into the net. As the teams went off for half-time a few boos echoed around Don Valley.

Drewe Broughton came on at the start of the second half for an out of sorts Ryan Taylor but the visitors were soon two up. Gary Jones put the ball into the path of Buckley and he slotted the ball in at the near post. Lee Thorpe came on for Rochdale for Le Fondre, but only lasted a few minutes before a two-footed wild challenge on Ian Sharps saw him see red and leave the visitors down to ten men. Still Dale moved forward and the Millers seemed to be ball watching for long parts of the game before they were handed a life-line on seventy-one minutes when Rory McArdle’s looping header cleared his own ‘keeper and went into the net. Rotherham started to put pressure on Rochdale and, at last, were moving forward. The referee was obviously getting fed up with the away side’s time wasting and added on six minutes of injury time. And it was near the end of this six minutes that the Millers pressure paid off. Reid got the ball on the edge of the area and his powerful shot whizzed by Russell and went into the back of the net.

Mark Robins has said on local radio that at the end of the game he felt relief, disappointment and anger. And, Mark, so did the fans.