Rotherham United 2 Morecambe 0: Ladapo double secures Millers victory

Freddie Ladapo notched both goals in dominant first half as the Millers bagged a seventh win in eight games.

It had been quite a traumatic day for the Morecambe contingent as they lost manager Stephen Robinson earlier in the day as he jumped ship to St Mirren in Scotland.

Now with Barry Roche swiftly tasked in a caretaker capacity, it was perhaps no real surprise to see the hosts boss the opening 45 minutes.

The Millers got off to a flying start, with Ladapo crashing home superbly in the fourth minute as he met Ollie Rathbone’s cross.

Five minutes later Ladapo almost doubled his tally, before Shrimps striker Cole Stockton went close to a leveller.

Ladapo did get his second on the half-hour mark. He latched on to Dan Barlaser’s through-ball before beating Trevor Carson with a routine finish.

Stockton twice went close to halving the deficit at the start of the second half.

Ladapo came agonisingly close to a third as his low drive thumped a post. Back came Morecambe with Jonathan Obika forcing Josh Vickers into a decent save, but generally the Millers’ back-line was standing firm.

Hakeem Odoffin came closest to grabbing a late third for the Millers when he fired into the side-netting, while Morecambe’s Ryan Cooney hit the post.

Rotherham: Vickers, Harding, Wood, Ihiekwe, Barlaser (Odoffin, 71), Osei-Tutu (Ogbene, 58), Rathbone, Wiles, Ferguson (MacDonald, 84), Smith, Ladapo. Unused substitutes: Johansson, Bola, Lindsay, Kayode.

Morecambe: Carson, O’Connor, Bennett, Bedeau, Cooney, Fane (Wildig, 69), Diagouraga, Leigh, McLoughlin, Stockton, Ayunga (Obika, 61). Unused substitutes: Connolly, Phillips, Gibson, Duffus, Smith.

Referee: S Mather (England).