Didn't want to post anything last night, as was pretty annoyed with the result. To be fair to Rotherham, they looked dangerous on several occasions and could have scored again. Will Hoskins in particular looks like he's got a good career ahead of him, he's got a nice touch and scored a good goal, which admittedly, left a couple of our players wanting.
From the off it was a busy game, pretty end to end but they deserved the first goal. Ward flapped a bit at a clearance and the ball fell to Williamson, who smashed it home. We then rallied, and Ellison took his goal well, after Mullin had played some nice football to get us into a decent position. Then, just 10 minutes later Hoskins scored a very nice goal, cutting inside from the left, beating a man (or two) and firing low into the corner.
Then we had a few chances, with Goodison nearly swivelling to shoot (a striker in this position probably would have found the net instinctively - Goodi just took too much time). There was also a point blank header which was saved, as was a Greenacre shot after excellent work on the left from Ellison. Taylor won a fair few headers but his knock-downs were often cleared before we could pose a threat.
In the second half Rotherham came out stronger, had a few chances and could have wrapped up the win. We were second to every ball and looked nervous in defence, with Goodison saving our bacon a couple of times with timely interventions. We pressed late on, but it was too little too late and when Greenacre came off on the hour (a minor injury I think) Zola came on and looked far from dangerous.
All in all, we didn't play that well and were beaten by the side who wanted it more on the day. I was impressed with Mullin, Shuker made some good runs but often failed to deliver a telling cross, and was marked heavily all game. Ellison worked hard, scored, and a couple of his left-footed right-side corners caused Rotherham trouble as they swung in under the bar. Up front we were pretty toothless, no real pace to trouble Rotherham. Now, at the back - Goodsion was alright, McCready a bit no-nonsense and the full backs did ok but didn't get forward enough. McLaren was the real disappointment, he provided no support to the back four and we lost the game in midfield by being second to every ball and lacking a bit of shape and discipline.
So, some work to do - at least Forest and Vale lost.