Ipswich Town 1 Rotherham United 0
Keane (31)
Rotherham United’s travel woes continued at the weekend when a thirty-first minute goal was enough for bottom team Ipswich Town to get all three points at Portman Road.
The hosts started the better and it was only thanks to Joe Mattock and goalkeeper Marek Rodak that the Millers didn’t go behind earlier. A Cole Skuse shot from some twenty yards out appeared to hit Sean Raggett on the arm and go to safety but referee James Linington shook his head when the home side appealed. Mattock has the Millers first shot which was hacked to safety. Sears was instrumental in Town’s goal when his cross wasn’t dealt with by the Millers defence and there was Keane to put the ball in the net from close range. James Collins did well to stop a Clark Robertson shot with Jon Taylor seeing a shot blocked. Raggett was replaced due to an injury by Ryan Williams. A Jack Lankester corner found Freddie Sears but he put his shot over before Mattock at the other end dragged a shot wide. Taylor perhaps should have done better in the final minutes of the half but volleyed over before a foul by Skuse on Williams saw the Ipswich player get a yellow card.
The Millers started the second half well with Dean Gerken keeping out a shot from Michael Smith and saved again minutes later from Will Vaulks. Ben Wiles had a shot which deflected out followed by a super ball in from Ryan Williams towards Jon Taylor but Gerken got down well to save at the Millers wingers feet. Some lovely work between Wiles and Joe Mattock saw the ball fall to Smith who in turn found Anthony Forde who sent the ball in for a Smith header which went inches over the crossbar. Vaulks forced Gerken into a smart save before some good work from Robertson found Mattock with Gerken bundling the ball clear. With time running out for the Millers there was a goal mouth scramble with Collins hacking the ball away from a Mattock prod-come-shot.
After the game Millers Manager Paul Warne thought his team deserved at least a point after Rotherham’s second half display. But, once again, you have to take those chances which we seem incapable of doing.
Referee- J Linington
Attendance- 20,893 (729 Millers)
