Fleetwood Town 1 Rotherham United 0
Pilkington 90+5
Rotherham United dropped to third in League One after a late goal this afternoon at the Highbury Stadium saw them defeated.
The Millers defence were caught napping in the second minute of the game and only a good save from ‘keeper Josh Vickers stopped Callum Camps opening the scoring. And it was Camps again the following minute who received a good ball from a corner but his shot went over the crossbar. There was an early yellow card for the Cod Army’s Callum Johnston after he hacked Shane Ferguson down with the Dan Barlaser free-kick finding Michael Smith who flicked the ball forward towards but the Rotherham skipper Richard Wood couldn’t get to it. This was followed by a cross from Smith finding his strike partner Will Grigg and only a super tackle from Tom Clarke stopped the Sunderland loanee scoring. Grigg was close again when shot from a difficult angle only to see his shot go across the face of goal without a black shirt there to tap it in and minutes later he received a ball in the box and shot on the spin to see the ball deflected for a corner. On the half-hour mark some good work between Ollie Rathbone and Ferguson saw the ball go towards Grigg who went up with Town ‘keeper, and former Miller, Alex Cairns who caught the ball at the second attempt. A free-kick for the visitors saw the ball find Chieo Ogbene who sent a cross into the box for Grigg whose shot went wide and minutes later the Millers’ forward got on the end of a Smith cross only to see his effort hit the crossbar. At the other end a Danny Andrew’s free-kick was defended by the Millers but only as far as Dan Batty who saw his header from some twenty yards fall to Ellis Harrison who hit the bar. As the board went up for three minutes a lovely cross from Ferguson saw Ogbene climb to head the bar bringing off a fingertip save from Cairns leaving in goalless going into the break.
Both sides started the second half with a change the hosts fetching on Aristote Nsiala replaces Carl Johnston while Will Grigg was replaced by Joshua Kayode for the Millers. Rotherham got a corner in the opening minute which Dan Barlaser took and JJ headed inches over. The Millers had a few corners which came to nothing, Fleetwood had a few players falling over referee Rob Lewis giving nothing before JJ got on the end of a long ball and flying towards goal let fly only to see Alex Cairns equal to it before Ben Wiles had a shot that went wide. Causing a few problems since coming on JJ had to be dragged down by Tom Clarke to stop him and was promptly booked, the resulting free-kick coming to nothing. The hosts brought on Anthony Pilkington in place of Cian Hayes. The home side won a corner which was taken by Danny Andrew with Clarke climbing highest and heading over before Paddy Lane found himself in space on the edge of the area but saw his shot go wide. With seven minutes left to go a ball from Lane was aimed at Pilkington who would have been one-on-one with Josh Vickers except for a brilliant tackle from Dan Barlaser. At the other end a cross in from Chieo Ogbene was perfect for Shane Ferguson but he saw his shot go inches wide followed by a Ferguson cross, in time added on, finding Michael Smith whose header was saved by Cairns. And with a minute of injury time to go a free-kick for the hosts found the head of Aristote Nsiala who headed down for Pilkington to toe-poke home and send the Millers following home with nothing.
To be fair as time went on the hosts did look more like scoring which they did. And, as I said, the Millers fall two places to third but we do have games in hand of Wycombe and Sunderland who moved about us.
Onto Tuesday night when we have a rearranged home game against Lincoln City.
Attendance – 3,385
Referee – Rob Lewis
