Millers Win in Six Goal Thriller

Rotherham United warmed their travelling fans up with a wonder goal, a win and a much better performance than of late at Valley Parade this afternoon.

The game was a typical Yorkshire derby full of blood and guts, passion and incident.

The Millers came out fighting and within the first five minutes Adam Le Fondre found Nicky Law whose shot from eighteen yards out was tipped over by Simon Eastwood in the Bantams goal. A few minutes later, a Nicky Law corner found Drewe Broughton, restored to the team by Ronnie Moore, but his shot was saved by Eastwood. Then skipper, Ian Sharps, had a header that just went over the crossbar followed by a Gary Roberts shot from the edge of the area that went wide of the goal. On seventeen minutes, Pablo Mills unfairly tackled Michael Boulding and from the resulting free kick, Simon Whalley hit the Millers wall and the ball re-bounded to Lee Bullock who put the ball past Andy Warrington to open the scoring. Two minutes later, Bullock got another shot in but it was saved by Warrington and not long afterwards James Hanson saw a header go just wide. Then, just before the half-hour mark, a Drewe Broughton header was saved by Eastwood but Kevin Ellison got his foot to it and put the ball into the empty net. Seven minutes later, leading scorer, Adam Le Fondre, turned provider and he got the ball to Kevin Ellison who took the visitors to half-time in the lead.

City came out like men possessed in the second half and almost from the re-start Michael Flynn pounced on a stray ball and put it into the right hand side of the goal to level things up. After that it could have gone either way with the Bradford City players seeming intent on winding Kevin Ellison and Drewe Broughton up at every opportunity and Le Fondre had a shot blocked by Flynn while an Ian Sharps header from close range hit the crossbar and went out to safety. On sixty-eight minutes, Warrington brought off a brilliant save from Hanson and a minute later a similar save from Bullock. With twelve minutes left, Luke O’Brien tripped Broughton up and from a quick free kick, Gary Roberts scored a stunning goal from inside his own half as he lobbed Eastwood to score his first Millers goal. After that, Warrington brought off fantastic saves from Chris Brandon and James O’Brien while Sharps put a Hanson effort behind for a corner. With two minutes to go, the Millers made all three points theirs when Le Fondre laid the ball to Broughton who tapped the ball into the back of the net, while the home players appealed for off-side.

Rotherham’s first win in four has helped close the gap on Bournemouth who lost five-nil at Morecambe today and it was a much better performance than of late with everyone trying.