ROTHERHAM’S seven-matchunbeaten run was brought to anabrupt halt by the worst away sidein League Two.

Aldershot Town, who began thematch with the joint worst awayrecord in the division, finished itwith three points after exploitingsome wretched defending by theMillers from some set pieces.

John Grant’s deft touch from a longthrow opened the scoring in the15th minute before he stooped in tohead home from a corner justbefore half-time.

Rotherham looked lightweightwithout the physical presence ofDrew Broughton up front andcaptain Pablo Mills shielding thedefence.

However, they started well andshould have gone ahead aftersustained early pressure.

Within the opening 10 minutes theMillers should have been ahead.

But Danny Harrison shot straight atAldershot’s reserve keeper, theVenezuelan Jaimez-Ruiz.

Then Reuben Reid blazed a gloriouschance over the bar.

Despite Millers pressure, someheinous finishing let Aldershot geta foothold back in the game.

Soon after Aldershot’s on-loan strikeJake Robinson’s chip flew too high,they struck the target.

Lewis Chalmers’ long throw into thebox was deftly flicked home byJohn Grant in the 15th minute.

The Shots goal gave them theemphasis to keep going forwardand came close again when theheavily bandaged Kirk Hudsonfired over from Chalmers’ longball.

Rotherham tried to regain possessionand had a few chances. But itwasn’t long until the away sidedoubled their lead.

Scott Davies’ whipped corner fromthe left was met by the head of the

unmarked Grant in the 39thminute.

The Millers looked resurgent after ahalf-time inquest into theirperformance.

And after four minutes they almostreduced the deficit. Hudson brokedown the left and crossed intoRyan Taylor who somehowmanaged to knee the ball high overthe bar.

A minute later Aldershot almostincreased their advantage inbizarre circumstances. AndySandell’s in-swinging cornerdeceived Andy Warrington andrebounded off the post and out.

From that point the game descendedinto a sloppy end-to-end affair,with a well-saved Reid shot and a25-yard Jamie Green drive theclosest Mark Robins’ men camebefore he made a change.

In an attempt to alter the game JamieClarke replaced Mark Burchill inattack.

The move saw the pace of Clarke andReid supporting Taylor. And itworked.

A 78th minute Micky Cummins crosswas headed home by Clarke but itproved a mere consolation asRotherham failed to grab anequaliser against the second worstaway defence in the division.

‘Baffling’Rotherham United manager Mark

Robins was “baffled” afterwatching his side lose at homeagainst Aldershot.

The Millers were shell-shocked bytwo first-half goals from set pieces.

“If we could defend properly against

two set pieces then we win thegame,” said Robins after the match.

John Grant’s brace was enough tohold off Rotherham’s attackingcharge at the Don Valley Stadium.

Robins said: “If we can score, if wehit the target with the eight or nineclear cut chances, we win thegame.”

“It’s disappointing, there’s no doubtabout it.”

“But it is baffling too because we’vebeen defending so well from setpieces and open play.”

“It’s baffling we haven’t got a goal.”“It’s baffling that we haven’t hit the

target when it looked easier to hitthat target rather than miss.”

“But you’ve got to hold your handsup.”

Rotherham conceded only two goalsduring their unbeaten run over thepast seven games.

And the defeat was the first time theyhave conceded more than a singlegoal in a match since the 3-0 defeatat Grimsby Town in late January.

The Millers managed to convert justone of 14 shots on goal.

“We’ve been on a good run and reallywe’ve got to look forward to thegame on Saturday to put thisbehind us.”

“From one week to the next it’s a bitup and down.”

“We need to sort that consistencyout,” he added.

Robins was keen to heap praise onthe delivery of Aldershotmidfielder Scott Davies, pointingout that his side needs to providebetter service in the run-in to theend of the season.

And with three consecutive homematches coming up, Robins wantsto move on from Tuesday night’sdisappointment.

“That was the first of four homegames that you want to be pickingpoints up in, that’s thedisappointing thing.”

“We’ve got Chesterfield coming upon the Saturday then Bury on theTuesday.”

“Two big games coming up and weneed to be a bit better than that.”

REVELLERS thronged the streets ofSheffield, covered in green paint andsilly hats as part of the St Patrick’sDay celebrations.

But while black gold flowed in the citycentre, thousands weren’t feeling sojovial a few tram stops away.

After such a fantastic run Rotherhamwere abruptly halted by an equallypoor Aldershot.

Scrappy, sloppy and uninspiring werethe best descriptions of the match.

And defeat came after several defensiveblunders from the Millers, who basedtheir recent success on sturdy defence.

Rotherham’s exciting counter-attackingstart to the game soon ended, haltedby Aldershot raids.

And it was the Shots’ dominance fromset pieces which changed the game asJohn Grant’s brace proved vital, if notspectacular.

Rotherham may well have been tiredfrom fixture congestion.

But they will need to tighten up oncemore if they are to cope with therelentless Saturday and Tuesdayfixtures for the next month.

The Musing Miller

Millers eyesnot smiling

FIXTURES

Date Time Opponents Venue Comp

Sat 21 Mar 3pm Chesterfield H L2

Tues 24 Mar 7.45pm Bury H L2

Sat 28 Mar 3pm Accrington S H L2

Tues 31 Mar 7.45pm Luton A L2

Sat 4 April 3pm Aldershot A L2

Sat 11 April 3pm Notts County H L2

Mon 13 April 3pm Port Vale A L2

Sat 18 April 3pm Shrewsbury H L2

Sat 25 April 3pm Bradford A L2

Sat 2 May 3pm Exeter H L2

LEAGUE TWOTeam P W D L F A PtsBrentford 38 19 13 6 52 29 70Gillingham 38 18 10 10 53 47 64Wycombe W 36 16 15 5 43 25 63Rochdale 37 17 10 10 64 45 61Bury 37 17 10 10 51 37 61Exeter City 37 17 10 10 53 42 61Shrewsbury Town 38 15 13 10 53 37 58Bradford City 38 16 10 12 58 47 58Dagenham & R 38 14 11 13 60 44 53Chesterfield 35 14 10 11 54 46 52Morecambe 37 12 15 10 44 44 51Lincoln City 36 12 12 12 45 43 48Darlington 36 16 9 11 50 35 47Aldershot Town 36 13 8 15 52 66 47Rotherham Utd 34 16 9 9 45 32 40Notts County 38 9 13 16 43 57 40Macclesfield T 37 11 6 20 39 67 39Port Vale 36 11 5 20 38 56 38Accrington S 37 9 10 18 37 51 37Bournemouth 38 13 12 13 47 46 34Barnet 36 7 12 17 43 64 33Chester City 38 6 10 22 36 71 28Grimsby Town 38 5 12 21 40 65 27Luton Town 37 11 13 13 51 55 16

by Simon Peachat Don Valley

Millers 1 Aldershot 2

MATCH FACTSScore: Rotherham United 0 Aldershot 2Rotherham: Warrington 6, Tonge 5,Sharps 6, Fenton 6, Green 6, Reid 6,Cummins 6, Harrison 6 (Mills 84),Hudson 5, Taylor 6, Burchill 5 (Clarke 68)Not used: Cann, Taylor, Joseph.Goals: Clarke 7Star man: GreenAldershot: Jaimez-Ruiz, Blackburn,Charles, Winfield, Straker, Hudson(Soares 90+4), Davies, Chalmers(Cochrane 77), Sandell, Robinson(Morgan 82), Grant. Not used: Hylton,Newman.Goals: Grant 15, 39Attendance: 2,769

STATISTICSMillers Aldershot

Possession 58% 42%Corners 6 5Shots (On) 7 7Shots (Off) 7 3Fouls 16 19

TWO superb goals gavethe Millers a victory thatarguably ranks as theirbest of the season.

Rochdale were, as expected,a handful but the Millersemerged on top in convincingfashion.

This was a performance of resilience,calm heads and big hearts in defence,clever skill and threatening attackinggoing forward.

In eight games against the LeagueOne top five, Rotherhan are unbeaten.

Both sides were stripped of a coupleof players who would surely havestarted (Pablo Mills through illness,Jamie Clarke ankle injury).

Boss Mark Robins said he had toldthe players the day before that he feltthey were now ready to play againstthe top teams. They backed up thosewords.

Not before an unproductive firsthalf, however, although they weredisrupted by playing most of it with 10men after an early head injury toDrewe Broughton.

He was off for some minutes, backon for a few more and then off formuch longer.

Rochdale got the chance to pick upafter a slowish start.

Finally, after 38 minutes, Broughtoncame back down the tunnel, then hadhis head bandaged only to abort andMark Burchill returned to the fray andwas to be a lively contributor for theremainder.

But it was Ryan Taylor, moving infrom the left to the centre and lookingmuch happier there, whoseperformance thereafter made it such asignificant move.

If the first half was rathernondescript, the second half was athriller – a credit to both teams in thewind and on a poor pitch.

Rotherham defended solidly withouttoo many alarms but did little goingforward other than a Taylor shot on theturn saved at full stretch by FrankFielding.

It changed right from the restart.Taylor and Burchill linked for the littleScot’s shot to be saved with the lead

coming moments later in the 50thminute.

It encapsulated Reuben Reid’sconfidence and self-assurance, uppedby the midweek hat-trick.

Under pressure, he kept calm andthen made space for a clinical finish.

Burchill fired just wide and alertgoalkeeping denied Reid outside thearea.

But Rochdale, with the dangerousNicky Adams sent on, were requiringfull concentration and defiantdefending.

On 71 minutes Taylor plucked hisspecial strike out of the locker – fromthe right, left-footed and curling atsome pace into the far side of the net.

Mark Hudson, after a smart linkwith Burchill, nearly got a third butRochdale were back in it with 15minutes left courtesy of AdamLeFondre’s header from an Adamscross.

Dale got a bit desperate andRotherham looked to pick them off andhad the opportunity nine minutes fromtime when Taylor was downed.

Reid changed tack with this penaltyand rattled it against the bar.

The finale was exciting asRotherham defended their area (AndyWarrington was so well protected hedidn’t have much to do all half) andthere was nothing closer than abrilliant effort from Burchill instoppage time which stranded the‘keeper and was a whisker over.

Rochdale remain a handful at homefor anybody at this level.

The Millers, seven unbeaten andwith several notable individualperformances, have given themselves afighting chance of a top half finish.

Result of the season?Rochdale 1 Millers 2 MATCH FACTS

Score: Rochdale 1 Rotherham Utd 2Rochdale: Fielding, Wiseman, McArdle,Stanton, Kennedy, Thompson(Higginbotham 56), Mark Jones, Keltie,Rundle (Adams 56), Le Fondre, Thorpe(McEvilly 73). Subs not used: Russell,Ramsden.Booked: Keltie.Goal: Le Fondre 75.Rotherham Utd: Warrington 6, Tonge 8,Sharps 8, Fenton 8, Green 8, Cummins 7,Harrison 8, Hudson 7, Reid 7, Broughton(Burchill 38) 6, Taylor 7. Subs not used:Cann, Joseph, J Taylor, Holmes.Booked: Reid.Goals: Reid 50, Ryan Taylor 71.Attendance: 3,201.

Robins ‘baffled’ as the run is halted

For all the latest news see our website at: www.dinningtonguardian.co.uk46 Dinnington and Maltby Guardian Friday 20th March 2009