Big-match verdict, Rochdale v Rotherham: Richard Wood says the only way is up for Millers

There was even the faintest hint of a rainbow, too, and should Rotherham United manager Paul Warne have seen it, he would have appreciated the landscape.

Successful campaigns are forged on collective roll-up-your-sleeves type afternoons like this. Brave the elements, show your ugly side at times, stay strong, get your 1-0 win, and get back on the coach with the job done.

The Rotherham contingent, all 1,221 of them, certainly must have thought so.

Promotion talk was even in the air as the Millers soared up to fourth in the League One table, although Warne, rather sensibly, chooses not to indulge in that subject. Not just yet.

Yet there was no denying that this was a substantial performance to provide winter fuel – exactly the sort that the Millers will need if they are to have a wholesome season.

Addressing the assembled press with a nifty backpack around his shoulders, Warne must have been secure in the knowledge that his lads had shared the load, appropriately enough in Rochdale, the birthplace of the modern co-operative movement.

It was a day for men and collectivism and there was a certain symmetry to the fact that one of the Millers’ leading lieutenants in Richard Wood was afforded the status of match-winner.

Grimacing with pain after suffering a whack to his knee in the first half, Wood cast aside the hardship, stayed stoic and got his bonus with a rare goal.

Playing his part in helping the Millers claim just their second away clean sheet since late April, 2016 was just as weighty.

Described as a “wrecking ball” by his manager in recognition of his single-mindedness to ensure that he gets his head or body on anything that arrives in either penalty area, Wood stayed in character with his 57th-minute header beating Josh Lillis at his near post. Job done.

Wood said: “I want to get a few more goals this season. We look strong from set-pieces and me, Kieffer (Moore) and Mike (Ihiekwe) have caused a lot of problems for teams over the past few weeks. We have a lot of bodies in there – big, strong lads who are all aggressive and attack the ball and it is paying dividends.

“We have got to build on this. It has been coming. Coming to a difficult place like this shows the character we have got. We need to push on now. We are in a healthy position in the league.

“We took a few knocks, but all got on with it and ground out a victory.

“We have a different mentality this year. We know we are a strong side and it is a different atmosphere and the place is a whole lot better to be in and that is showing with the results.

“I want us to be challenging and we are more than capable.

“There are no teams who we have played so far who I am afraid of. We need to keep playing like this and grinding out victories. I will take 1-0 all day long.”

Against a well-drilled Dale side, who had kept five successive clean sheets, beforehand Warne would have viewed a point as a step in the right direction, more especially given the Millers’ run of five losses in their first six league matches on the road in 2017-18 and their crippling travel sickness of the past 18 months.

He admitted as much afterwards, although the growing evidence on the afternoon should have fortified his belief that the game was there for the taking against a home side who were pretty underwhelming and never truly got going.

The Millers may have suffered an early blow when Lee Frecklington left the fray, but it did not disrupt their fluidity with the only thing missing from a sound opening 45 minutes being a goal.

One should have arrived from Frecklington’s replacement, Will Vaulks, in splendid isolation following Anthony Forde’s inviting free-kick, but his header drew a finger-tip save from Lillis.

The Dale goalkeeper soon raced out of his goal to make a smart block to deny Richie Towell, who had raced clear following an astute through ball from the excellent Darren Potter, who brought calm and order on a rain-swept autumnal occasion.

Forde then failed to get a clean connection when well placed following Ryan Williams’s probing pass, and, at the other end, all Dale could muster in an anaemic half was an opportunist strike from distance from Steven Davies, which landed on the roof of the net.

It proved a somewhat quiet first half for Richard O’Donnell on his return to the league line-up and a home onslaught never materialised on the restart as the Millers remained in the box seat.

The all-important breakthrough arrived when Wood stooped to conquer, heading in Forde’s well-flighted corner past the despairing Lillis.

A desperately disappointing home side – who had lost twice at home in the league in 13 months – did almost level soon after when Davies’s header clipped the bar from Joe Bunney’s corner, but it was not the precursor to a power surge.

Marshalled adeptly by Wood, the Millers’ backline stayed on message and the midfield hassled and harried with Vaulks staying alert to clear a dangerous header from Ian Henderson before Wood spurned a chance to double United’s lead when he headed over.

But one goal was enough with the Millers afforded just the one major scare late on when substitute Bradden Inman fired over from close range.