Stalemate at the Valley

At a blustery Don Valley, this afternoon, the Millers failed to do the double over Accrington in a dreary game.

The visitors were the first to have a go when Michael Symes headed just wide from a corner. At the other end Kenny Arthur in the Accrington goal palmed over a shot from Reuben Reid after the striker had gone past Robbie Williams on the right. Andy Warrington then had to bring off a good save from Symes as he managed to fight the wind and fingertip it over the bar. But, to be honest, the wind made it difficult to play any decent football and Andy Warrington was having trouble getting his goalkicks past the half-way line. The Millers suffered a blow quite early on when the lively Jamie Green was twice caught and eventually had to hobble off to be replaced by Marc Joseph.

Accrington should have gone ahead in the first minutes of the second half when a Symes pass found Craig Linfield whose shot, from six yards out, went narrowly wide of the upright and soon after Warrington did well to block a Symes shot from close range. At the other end, Dale Tonge found Mark Burchill, on at half-time for Drewe Broughton, who chested the ball down for Ryan Taylor but the young striker dragged his shot wide from close range. Ian Sharps then made a rare mistake and let Chris Turner get a good cross in to Symes but his shot was wide. The home side finished the stronger and Ryan Taylor had a curling shot turned away for a corner before Kenny Arthur pulled off a brilliant save in the dying minutes of the match from the same player.

John Coleman will be the happier manager this evening but, as I said before, the weather played a major part in the game today.