The left-back drove in the opener in the 72nd minute before fellow 20-year-old Nicky Law followed suit from the same corner of the area by curling the ball beyond Millers debutant goalkeeper David Stockdale five minutes later.

"Two shots, we've only had two shots," sang the celebrating City fans after the midfield man had made the game safe.

The chant, while not strictly accurate, went a long way to summing up the nature of the encounter.

Rotherham players and fans alike were left bewildered as to how they had failed to take at least a point from the encounter.

But a delighted O'Brien said: "I'd had a similar shot in the first half which took a deflection and the goalkeeper did well to push it away for a corner.

"I told my dad earlier in the week that I would score today and told him to get a bet on – he generally backs me to be the first scorer – but the last time I scored was in the Under-14s or 15s and I did not know what to do when I had scored so I just ran over to the corner where our fans were."

O'Brien admitted, however: "Rotherham were the better side for the first 20 minutes as we struggled with their new set up, although the formation they played gave me more room to get forward and this was my best game for the club. I don't know why we struggled early on but it is a strange place to come with the running track around the pitch and three parts of the ground without fans.

"We have been playing well recently but the results have not gone for us. We are buzzing now and really looking forward to Chesterfield's visit on Tuesday."

Fellow scorer Law hopes that tomorrow's game will not be his last for City. His form was checked out by Sheffield United whom he is due to return to after the game but Law said:

"My month's loan is up so I will speak to the gaffer on Monday but I would love to stay here. I'm enjoying getting regular football and the team is doing well and I want to be part of it.

"I owed them that goal after my miss at Bury and I'm delighted we won because it was a very tough game and they caught us by surprise by their formation."

Credit for that went to Millers manager Mark Robins, who refreshed his somewhat jaded troops by making six changes from the side that had been knocked out of the FA Cup in midweek.

He employed a fluid 5-3-2 formation, bringing in Stockdale on a month's loan from Fulham to cover for the injured Andy Warrington.

Robins said: "Defeat is difficult to take, to be honest. It was a very good performance by us and we did everything right apart from put the ball in the back of the net. We probably had 10 reasonable clear-cut chances but we did not take any. Players have performed their duties as they were asked to and the people that came in did a good job."

One of those was Peter Holmes, who rewarded his manager for giving him a first start of the season with a driving midfield performance. He peppered the City goal with some fine shots but goalkeeper Rhys Evans was in no mood to be beaten behind a sometimes shaky defence.

The City goalkeeper was at the centre of the game's big turning point in the 76th minute when, from a free-kick, Marc Joseph headed diagonally goalbound and striker Drewe Broughton decided to make sure with a close-range header only to see Evans pull off a stupendous save, palming the ball onto the bar and watching it rebound on the line before being cleared.

A minute later and City were two-up.

They could so easily have been out of contention in the first five minutes when the Millers spurned four great opportunities. There was a weak header and a miscued shot from inside the six-yard area by Broughton, while impressive attack-minded defender Jamie Green flashed a shot just wide.

O'Brien's deflected shot was all City could conjure as Holmes and Ryan Taylor, with a flick header, went close to breaking the deadlock before the interval.

A few choice words from City manager Stuart McCall – "we had been treating it like an end-of-season game with nothing at stake" – finally got the Bantams on the front foot and only a last-ditch challenge by Green prevented Peter Thorne putting them ahead.

Yet still the better chances fell to Rotherham as Green not only supplemented the attack but kept the dangerous Omar Daley largely subdued.

However, after Green had shot off target, O'Brien took advantage of space down his flank before firing home to set up a win which keeps City just four points from the top.


Rotherham United: Stockdale, Tonge, Joseph, Sharps, Fenton, Green; Cummins, Hudson, Holmes; Broughton, Taylor (Barker 85). Unused substitutes: Cann, Nicholas, Rhodes, Garcia.

Bradford City: Evans, Moncur, Lee, M Clarke, O'Brien; Daley, McLaren (T Clarke 63), Law, Osborne (Conlon 70); Thorne (Nix 80), M Boulding. Unused substitutes: McLaughlin, Ainge.

Referee: M Jones (Cheshire).