Leicester City 3 Rotherham United 0
Daka (60, 65(pen))
Casadei (72)
Bottom of the league Rotherham United held on for sixty minutes against top of the league Leicester City at the King Power Stadium this afternoon but a couple of mistakes in five minutes was enough to give the hosts all three points.
City had the first chance on seven minutes when a short corner routine saw Stephy Mavididi cross for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall whose shot wouldn’t have gone amiss at a rugby ground as he blazed it well over the crossbar. Mavididi thought he’d put the Foxes in front on fifteen minutes but he had been flagged offside way before he slotted home before Wilfred Ndidi saw his shot blocked before Millers’ ‘keeper Viktor Johansson did well to stop the same player scoring a few minutes later. The Millers had a number of passes with each one being loudly ‘ole’d’ by the travelling fans who were soon singing ‘oh Viktor Johansson’ when he saved a shot high up from Mavididi. A long Sean Morrision throw caused problems for the City defenders in the box with no red shirt able to capitalise on it before Hakeem Odoffin should probably think himself lucky not to be yellow carded when he stuck out a leg with Mavididi falling into the box after he’d taken the ball after the Millers man a move earlier. The Millers were indebted to Odoffin a few minutes later when he did well to block a shot, that looked destined for the net, from Ricardo Pereira. In the final minutes of the half Ndidi and Mavididi worked well together the latter blasting the ball into the home fans behind the goal before Wout Faes also saw his shot go over the crossbar after trying his luck from some twenty-five yards out. Johansson sent a nice ball for Christ Tiehi to get on the end of but as the midfielder set off on a run he was fouled by Abdul Fatawu receiving a yellow for his trouble.
City set off at a cracking pace in the second half with both Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Patson Daka having shots blocked before an Abdul Fatawu corner saw Viktor Johansson jump high to collect. Johansson rolled the ball out for Seb Revan who lost it straight away with Fatawu pinching it off him and sending it to Daka in a good position the Zambian International thinking he had opened to scoring only for Sean Morrison to acrobatically clear off the line. Ricardo Pereira had a great chance but put the ball wide before Johansson did well to get down to a shot from the Portuguese full-back. The first change of the game saw Yunus Akgun replace Abdul Fataw for the hosts. A chance for the Millers came when a nice cross from Ollie Rathbone found Cohen Bramall the Millers defender sending a lovely ball in for Sam Nombe who inches away from connecting although it wouldn’t have counted as the linesman, for once, was up with play and had put his flag up for offside. But, on the hour mark the Millers luck ran out after they failed to get the ball away with Johansson doing well to get to a shot from Wout Faes but he could only parry the ball out as far as Daka who made it one-nil to Leicester from short range. And five minutes later Morrison, in his own penalty area, sent a cross for Revan but it didn’t reach him and was cut out by Daka who ran back into the area Johansson could do nothing but bring the forward down and referee Darren Bond pointed to the spot and booked the Millers’ ‘keeper. Daka picked himself up and stuck the penalty in the bottom left hand corner just beating the fingertips of Johansson. Two changes for Rotherham saw Jordan Hugill and Sam Nombe make way for Georgie Kelly and Tom Eaves while Dennis Praet came on for the hosts to replace Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Wilfred Ndidi went off with Cesare Casadei coming the other way. And just two minutes after coming on Casadei headed home a cross from Ricardo to make it three-nil. With ten minutes to go there were more changes Harry Souttar and Hamza Choudhury coming on for Leicester to replace James Justin and Ricardo Pereira and Rotherham bringing on Sam Clucas for Jamie Lindsay. The Millers came close to pulling one back when a fast break saw Bramall get forward passing the ball to Ollie Rathbone who tried his luck from distance but put the ball just past the post. Johansson saved from Stephy Mavididi before a shot from Choudhury went wide. Another break by the Millers saw Eaves away down the wing but he was stopped short by an offside flag before Clucas was hauled down winning a free-kick which came to nothing. There were five extra minutes in which Akgun had a shot from just outside the box that flew past the upright.
The Millers are still winless on the road – today yes I think Leicester were better than us but were they three goals better? Once they scored we went back to passing the ball backwards from free-kicks around the half-way line when it really wasn’t necessary (in my humble opinion) and also giving the hosts the opportunity to get the ball back in a dangerous area.
No, we aren’t happy Millers going into Christmas but we’ll still be there on Boxing Day.
Attendance – 31,175
Referee – Darren Bond
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