Ten Men Millers Beaten At Home

Rotherham United 1 Swansea City 2
Nombe 64                         Patino 45,     Yates 73

Despite going down to ten men with just seventeen minutes on the and coming back from a late first half goal against them Rotherham United lost the battle of the managerless clubs this afternoon at the New York Stadium.

Mr Smith, with the whistle, decided he was going to be the star of the show this afternoon with the Millers having the better of the opening minutes and might have gone in front early on when Sam Nombe sent in a lovely ball for Christ Tiehi who saw his shot from just inside the box saved by Swansea ‘keeper Carl Rushworth. A minute later Arvin Appiah won a free-kick in a useful position which he took himself and saw the ball go inches over the corner of the goalpost. Daniel Ayala went one-on-one with a City player, the ball appearing to go out off the back of the Swans player, but the referee gave the throw-in to City which Ayala took exception too and picked the ball up throwing it on the pitch and promptly received a yellow card for stopping the throw-in being taken. Not five minutes later he went shoulder to shoulder with Charlie Patino, the City midfielder going down in stages, and although the referee originally gave a free-kick to the visitors the Swansea players surrounded him gesticulating that the Millers player should be booked. Mr Smith then got out a yellow card followed by a red and Ayala had to walk. He then showed a yellow to Harry Darling for telling him he should have booked Ayala. When play resumed the lively Josh Key saw his shot go way over the crossbar and minutes later a nice cross from Jay Fulton found Yannick Bolasie who saw his shot go the same way. Darling was the next Swansea player to put the ball into the crowd instead of the net which was followed by a shot from Bolaise being saved under pressure by Millers’ ‘keeper Viktor Johansson. It was certainly backs to the wall for the ten men of Rotherham for the rest of the half with Johansson saving a shot from outside the box from Jamal Lowe before having to be alert for a number of Swansea corners before Bolaise had a header that went wide of the upright and the Millers number one did well to get hold of a shot from Darling. Jamie Lindsay won a free-kick which and when Lowe kicked the ball away the Millers fans stood as one and waved imaginary yellow cards towards Mr Smith who eventually did book the City forward. A good save from Johansson from Darling saw the ball go for a corner which came to nothing before Charlie Patino, who was in acres of space, looked odds on to open the scoring but sent his shot high and wide. The Millers didn’t take heed of that effort a minute later, as the board went up for a further three minutes, and when Key sent a ball into the box it hit Ollie Rathbone before bouncing off Patino and rolled into the corner of the net to gave Swansea the lead going in at half-time. A replay on the big screen showed that the ball clearly hit Patino on the lower arm/hand as it bounced into the net but Referee Smith wasn’t interested in the Millers’ fans arguments.


The Millers started the second half with the first change of the game with Wayne Carlisle putting on Sean Morrison for Alvin Appiah. A Matt Grimes ball found Harry Darling who saw his shot clawed over the bar by Viktor Johansson with the resulting corner finding Jamie Patterson who perhaps should have done better than head the ball wide. The Millers won a couple of free-kicks which came to nothing before Sam Nombe tried his luck from outside the box but the ball went not only high but wide. And it was Nombe again who got past his marker(s) and made room for a shot which went wide. A change for the visitors saw Yannick Bolasie make way for former Millers Jamie Yates just short of the hour mark. The Millers defence blocked shots from Patterson and Jamal Lowe before a shot from Jay Fulton went straight into the waiting arms of Johansson. At the other end Cohen Bramall won the ball back in midfield and ran towards goal sending a cross over which appeared to his the arm of Ben Cabango but, to be fair to Mr Smith, the defenders arm was down by his side. But the Millers kept going and on sixty-four minutes a long Morrison throw was flicked on by Hakeem Odoffin into a melee of players in the box with Nombe finding the net from just yards out to get the equaliser for Rotherham. Swansea made another change fetching on Liam Walsh for Charlie Patino. The hosts were having more of the ball now and a shot from Odoffin was well blocked going out for a corner which Rathbone took seeing it cleared. A couple more Rotherham corners came to nothing before a corner for the visitors saw Matt Grimes cross the ball finding Darling who saw his header saved by Johansson. But, just a minute later the Swans took the lead for the second time when a low cross in from Josh Key saw Lee Peltier go to ground as he tried to clear the ball bouncing into the path of Yates who slipped it into the corner of the goal to make it two-one. A double change for the Millers saw Grant Hall and Jordan Hugill replace Jamie Lindsay and Sam Nombe. A foul on Key brought a yellow card for Rathbone before another Rotherham change brought Georgie Kelly onto the pitch for Ollie Rathbone. Grant Hall was booked for disputing a decision by Mr Smith with the final change for the Millers seeing Tom Eaves come on for Lee Peltier. In time added on Swansea brought on Liam Cullen and Bashir Humphreys with Jamie Paterson and Josh Tymon going the other way. The Millers took to playing the long ball to try and get a point out of the game with Seb Revan seeing a shot blocked and Christ Tiehi having a shot well saved by Carl Rushworth. As the game came to an end Humphreys saw yellow for the visitors with Swansea taking all three points back to Wales and the Millers seeing themselves drop to bottom place in the Championship on goal difference.

It was a sucker punch when the Millers went down to ten men and they couldn’t quite hold on until half-time. They regrouped for the second half and got the equaliser but didn’t push on from there, conceding, before throwing caution to the wind and trying to bombard the opposition with ariel shots late on – but it wasn’t to be.

Will we have a new man at the helm for Tuesday’s game? Your guess is as good as mine.

Referee – Josh Smith
Attendance – 9,414