Millers lose at Valley

Rotherham United lost this afternoon to Shrewsbury Town who, before today, had only won once on their travels this season.

The game started with both teams on the attack, Drewe Broughton nearly found the net after a goalmouth scramble in the opening minutes while at the other end, Grant Holt, looking for his hundreth league goal, shot straight at Andy Warrington. Five minutes later Warrington saved easily from Grant and ex Miller, Graham Coughlan, saw his header go wide. The Millers were marshalling the game but seemed goal shy this afternoon and it was Holt again who shot over when it looked easier to score and then saw a header go wide. Mark Hudson had a shot at goal but it went high when he found himself in space in front of goal towards the end of the half. After twenty-five minutes the assistant at the far side had to be subbed after he’d fallen over and it was in the time added on for this that Nick Chadwick got away from Nick Fenton and slotted the ball under Andy Warrington to give the visitors the lead.

Shrewsbury looked hungrier than the Millers in the second half but, to be honest, until the seventieth minutes, neither side had a shot at goal. Reuben Reid got hold of a ball from Jamie Green and turned and skipped his way into the penalty area but when he looked up no one had gone with him and he was dispossessed. A corner in the seventieth minute from Hudson, found Ian Sharps who headed it onto Ryan Taylor. The young striker turned and let fly into the corner of the net for the equaliser. The Millers were then on top for the first time the half and looked likely to get a second until five minutes later when some good work from Neil Ashton saw him drill the ball into the area and with Warrington looking like he was coming to claim the ball, Sharps stuck out a foot and deflected the ball into the back of his own net. A lot of niggly fouls followed the goal and a lot of ‘falling over’ by the visitors. But the Millers should have got an equaliser in the final five minutes when Dale Tonge pulled the ball back to Ryan Taylor but the forward blazed the ball way over the bar. At the final whistle it was the cheers of the three hundred and fifty-seven Shrewsbury fans that could be heard as the weary Millers walked away from Don Valley.

The team looked tired today and didn’t seem to gel for some reason and there didn’t seem to be a lot of running off the ball We played it in the air a lot which, in my opinion, didn’t seem to work. Play-off dreams over? I think so.