Rotherham United 1 Ipswich Town 0: Millers outclass title rivals on way back to summit

The visitors – former English champions and UEFA Cup winners – arrived at the New York Stadium in pole position, looking to put some daylight between themselves and Paul Warne’s Millers, the side they overtook at the summit just four days earlier.

Yet, for anybody who hadn’t studied the league table prior to kick-off, what unfolded would surely have appeared much more like a top versus bottom contest.

Rotherham played okay in the first half, but were excellent for nearly all of the second. By contrast, Paul Lambert’s Tractor Boys were awful for 85 minutes, with little if anything about their performance indicative of a team in line for an immediate return to the Championship.

That said, for all the pressure that the Millers exerted, the last five minutes were unnecessarily nervy because they failed to kill Ipswich off, and, in the end, the visitors could have nicked a point. There are lessons to be learned for Warne’s men, though ultimately all that really matters is that, for now, they are back in first place.

After an uneventful opening 10 minutes, Rotherham almost got their noses in front when a quickly-taken free-kick sent Kyle Vassell in on goal and he thudded a strike against the underside of the cross-bar. The hosts had a clear sight of goal again soon afterwards, Dan Barlaser showcasing superb vision and range of pass to split the Town back-four and send Hakeeb Adelakun away down the left.

The Bristol City loanee’s first touch was a heavy one, however, and allowed visiting goalkeeper Will Norris to narrow the angle and divert the ball behind.

With the flow of the game too often punctuated by the sound of pedantic referee Antony Coggins’s whistle, much of the rest of the opening half unfolded in stop-start fashion.

Rotherham continued to look the more likely, however, with Ipswich seemingly content to send an endless succession of hopeful long balls down the other end of the pitch. And, three minutes before half-time, the Millers got their rewards for trying to play football.

Barlaser hung up a left-wing corner that Michael Smith headed goalwards, drawing a rather unconvincing save out of Norris, and Richard Wood pounced on the loose ball and nodded home from a yard out.

So poor were they before it, something resembling a response would have been expected from Town after the interval, though none was forthcoming.

Indeed, Warne’s men began to enjoy more and more possession as the second period wore on.
Adelakun delivered an inviting ball from the left that Chiedozie Ogbene just failed to get on the end of at the far post, then Wood headed in what would have been his second of the evening, only for Mr Coggins to disallow it for a foul on the goalkeeper. The Millers threatened again when Ogbene cut in off the right and forced Norris into action once more and they continued to turn the screw. Vassell and substitute Ben Wiles both went close in quick succession before Adelakun let fly from 30 yards and beat Norris, but not the bar.

Town did eventually come to life, and there were some uncomfortable moments for Warne at the death.

Daniel Iversen produced a flying save to keep out Luke Garbutt’s thunderbolt of a free-kick and James Norwood slid in and sent an effort against the inside of the post, but the final whistle arrived just in time.

Rotherham: Iversen, Thompson, Wood, Ihiekwe, Wood, Mattock, Ogbene, Crooks (Wiles 72), Barlaser, Adelakun (Olosunde 89), Smith, Vassell (Ladapo 75).

Ipswich: Norris, Chambers, Wilson, Woolfenden, Edwards, Downes, Huws (Nolan 68), Judge (Sears 80), Garbutt, Jackson, Keane (Norwood 67).

Referee: A Coggins (England).