Millers Get All Three Points

Today`s game started in the sunshine with a minute`s applause in the memory of Bobby Robson and, to be honest, that was about as emotional as it got until the final minute when substitute Paul Warne got the only goal of the game.

The home team started well and forced a corner in the opening minutes before Accrington took charge of the game and had the first shot, a header that went wide, by Darren Kempton in the seventh minute. A minute later Billy Kee had a shot that went just over Andy Warrington`s bar and then Warrington got down well to a shot from James Ryan. In fact, the Millers had Warrington to thank for a few good saves, particularly one from Paul Mullin. Rotherham had a ten minute spell in the middle of the half when Kevin Ellison and Nicky Law had shots at goal and Tom Pope toe poked a Nicky Law free-kick just wide. At the other end, Warrington saved again from Robert Grant, John Miles and a free kick from James Ryan that he must have seen very late. Just before the whistle went, Jason Taylor got his head to the ball which went well wide of Alan Martin in Stanley`s goal.

Paul Warne came on for out-of-sorts Ryan Taylor for the second half and the Millers did seem to up the tempo a little. Ian Sharps had a shot after five minutes that was blocked on the line by Stanley`s defenders and minutes later Ellison had a shot blocked too and Nick Fenton saw a goal bound shot headed off the line by Luke Joyce. Warrington had to come out and save from Grant and at the other end a shot by Pablo Mills went way over the bar while Martin made two good saves from Warne. This game had 0-0 written all over it before a Sharps shot crashed against the crossbar and Warne was on hand to thump home the loose ball to send the Millers fans home happy and jubilant

We got three points today, which was a lot more than I thought we were going to get. Accrington always seemed to have a player in space today while we had players who were hopeless at heading a ball. But, it’s the first game – there’s a long way to go….

* Attendance – depends where you read it! I can tell you that there were not ten thousand plus there! On the other hand I thought there was a lot more than three thousand there.