February saw Rotherham United start in twentieth place in the Championship with the first game seeing Sheffield United the visitors to the New York Stadium. The South Yorkshire neighbours fought out a goalless draw with the Millers coming closest in the first half with a Hakeem Odoffin header which the Blades’ ‘keeper managed to punch away. Just after the break Anel Ahmedhodzic saw his header go just over the crossbar for the visitors. Ollie Rathbone was handed the armband for this game. Millers Manager Matt Taylor said it hadn’t been a drab game saying ”we came across a quality team today and generally held them at arms length.’
We found out early in the month that Ollie Rathbone’s rocket of a goal against Blackburn Rovers was nominated for the Sky Bet Championship Goal of the Month Award for January. The final winner was Coventry City’s Gustavo Hamer.
The Millers travelled to the seaside for the next game taking on Blackpool at Bloomfield Road. It wasn’t the best of games with two pieces of excitement seeing Viktor Johansson save from former Miller Jerry Yates and a shot from Chieo Ogbene smash against the crossbar before going to safety leaving the game goalless and pushing Blackpool to the bottom of the table.
A Tuesday night trek to Berkshire to take on Reading was next on the cards for the Millers which saw Lee Peltier score his first league goal for nine years and give them a first half lead. But second-half headers from Andy Carroll and Tyrese Fornah saw the Royals win the game two-one. Millers Boss Matt Taylor said ‘it hurts more when you play well.’
And he would have been just as frustrated when Coventry City were the visitors for the next game which saw the visitors get a two-nil victory meaning the Millers had got just one win in seven games.
It was a better outcome the following Tuesday night when Sunderland were at the New York Stadium. Two cracking goals, the first from Ollie Rathbone and the second from Shane Ferguson, saw the Millers two-up before the hour mark and although Joe Gelhardt halved the deficit on sixty-one minutes Rotherham held on to take all three points.
The last game of February for Rotherham was the Liberty Stadium when they took on Swansea City. The hosts went in front on forty-two minutes thanks to a good finish from Joel Piroe but seven minutes after the break Chieo Ogbene won a point for the Millers from a Shane Ferguson free-kick. It was a ‘step in the right direction,’ Millers Boss Matt Taylor said after the draw.
As the month ended Chieo Ogbene said that playing for Rotherham United meant a lot to him admitting that the speculation about his future during the January transfer window had had an impact on him.
Vital Rotherham’s Man of the Month for February was Ollie Rathbone.
Rotherham finished February still in twentieth place with thirty-seven points which was two more than Cardiff City and one less than Birmingham City.
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