The Halloween afternoon when Chelsea were haunted by the Millers

So reported the Sheffield Daily Telegraph after Hughes’s Rotherham United thrashed Chelsea 6-0.

The match, in the old Second Division, took place on October 31, 1981 - a Halloween horror show for the visiting team from west London.

Rod Fern scored a hat-trick, fellow striker Ronnie Moore bagged a brace, and left-back John Breckin started the rout.

“We’ve been threatening to do this for some time and now we’ve done it,” enthused Rotherham’s delighted manager Hughes afterwards. “A shambles,” said John Neal, his opposite number.

The match at Millmoor pitted a Rotherham side that had won the Division Three title the previous season against a Chelsea team that had been relegated from the top flight in 1979.

The Millers were 18th after three wins, two draws and six defeats, while Chelsea were seventh, having won five, drawn two and lost four.

Under Hughes, who had replaced Ian Porterfield that summer after the latter joined Sheffield United, the Millers had found the step up challenging and were winless in four league games.

However, the feeling was that the former Liverpool and England captain had his men playing some decent football - and that anyone who underestimated them was in for a fright, on Halloween or otherwise.

The game began in glorious sunshine, with a flurry of action on and off the field.

On it, Rotherham swept into a three-goal lead inside 13 minutes - taking them halfway towards fulfilling Hughes’s prediction that they would “hit someone for six”.

Fed inside the left of the penalty area by Fern, after the ball had been worked across from the right, Breckin sent a high, left-footed shot squirming through the hands of Petar Borota in a dreadful mistake by the Chelsea goalkeeper.

Four minutes later, Borota was rooted to his line as Phil Henson’s corner from the left was flicked on by defender Gary Chivers and met by Fern, who finished firmly from close range.

“Easy, easy,” chanted the Rotherham supporters among a crowd of 10,145.

The game was captured for posterity by Yorkshire Television, with John Helm providing commentary alongside Derek Dougan, the former Northern Ireland and Wolverhampton Wanderers striker.

“Emlyn Hughes is off the bench - and no wonder!” said Helm as the second goal hit the back of the net. “A dream start, this, for Rotherham!”

Three minutes later, it was 3-0.

John Green pumped a ball forward into the penalty area and Borota collided with the onrushing Mick Gooding, conceding a clumsy penalty that Moore converted.

“That is the most perfect start to a match!” said Helm. “Thirteen minutes gone - and Rotherham three goals to the good!”

Off the field, however, all was not well.

There had been tension in the air from kick-off, and Chelsea’s calamitous start to proceedings scarcely improved the mood of the more unruly sections of the travelling support.

As Sheffield’s Star Green ‘Un reported: “The game had barely started before trouble flared at the Tivoli End and police had to go among the crowd, quickly reinforced by 30 other officers marching down the stand-side touchline… Many policemen, three of them with dogs, were rushed to the ‘bottom end’ and a particularly nasty episode occurred on the Press box corner of the main stand. A Chelsea fan, looking for trouble, plunged headlong to the concrete, continued to fight and was tackled by two policemen until reinforcements arrived.”

According to the Sunday Express: “Police were involved in running battles with fans at both ends. The scenes off the pitch were almost as incredible as those on it.”

Perhaps the most extraordinary sight was that of five young men perched on top of a stand behind the goal.

“Well, that just shows the interest in this game,” said Helm. “Those five lads have decided that’s the best vantage point for watching Rotherham play Chelsea.” At least it kept them out of harm’s way.

By the midway point of the second half, the five lads had witnessed five Rotherham goals.

On 63 minutes, Moore surged into the penalty box and shot left-footed. Borota got a hand to the ball but succeeded only in diverting it towards the net as Fern applied the coup de grace.

Four minutes later, Fern completed his hat-trick. Tony Towner crossed from the right, and Fern supplied an emphatic header.

Towner’s performance had Dougan purring. “If there’s a better outside right in the United Kingdom than Tony Towner, on his form this afternoon, I have yet to see it,” said Helm’s co-commentator.

Chelsea’s day went from bad to worse when they missed a penalty - not once, but twice. John Green was adjudged to have fouled Colin Lee, and John Bumstead’s spot kick was saved by Ray Mountford, only for the referee to order a retake because of encroachment.

Bumstead’s second attempt - also to Mountford’s right - drew an almost identical save, before Chris Hutchings somehow missed an open goal from the rebound.

“Well, that really does sum up Chelsea’s afternoon,” said Helm.

A few minutes later, Moore headed in Rotherham’s sixth from a cross by Breckin before missing the chance to claim a hat-trick of his own, stabbing a misplaced back pass narrowly wide. Moore sank to the ground in despair, then got to his feet with the flicker of a half-smile.

Afterwards, Hughes was magnanimous in victory. He felt his side had been “lucky to catch Chelsea on a bad day” and suggested that Chelsea’s extra-time exertions three days earlier, when they beat Southampton in a League Cup tie, had “taken a toll”.

Chelsea boss Neal, however, was having none of it. “There’s no excuse,” he said. “There were individual players who made bad mistakes.”

None more so than goalkeeper Borota, whose performance was savaged by the national press.

The Yugoslav was an eccentric character who had joined the club in 1979 from Partizan Belgrade.

On the one hand he was strong, courageous and a brilliant shot-stopper; on the other, he was frustratingly erratic and occasionally irresponsible.

Story has it that Borota once dropped his cap over the goal-line in a match in Yugoslavia, then went to pick it up while still carrying the ball, resulting in a goal.

“For Pete’s Sake” ran the headline in The People after the Rotherham game, with correspondent John Trevor clearly unimpressed.

“Just how much longer can Chelsea afford the antics of ‘keeper Petar Borota?” he wrote.

“Chelsea were dead and buried with the match not 15 minutes old as a cascade of Borota blunders gave Rotherham a 3-0 lead.

“By then, Borota’s bright orange gloves went nicely with his bright red face.”

The Sunday Mirror referred to “Borota’s flying circus”, while the Sunday Express said he had “a nightmare game, and could be blamed for four of the goals”.

Borota played only one more competitive match for Chelsea, a 2-1 victory over Newcastle the following week, before an exasperated Neal decided to get rid.

None of which detracted from Rotherham’s performance, with Hughes’s men fully deserving of their triumph.

The Millers even put together a late promotion challenge, winning nine successive games to climb from the relegation zone into third place, before finishing seventh.

As if to show that their demolition of Chelsea was no fluke, Rotherham won the return match 4-1 at Stamford Bridge in March. Chelsea, for their part, finished 12th before rising to the heights as the decade unfolded.

Halloween 1981, however, was all about Rotherham as they made good on Hughes’s promise to give someone a thumping.

As hat-trick hero Fern put it: “Ironically, we played better in other matches in the last few weeks. The difference this time was that the goals went in.”

Rotherham United: Ray Mountford, Gerry Forrest, John Breckin, Mark Rhodes, Paul Stancliffe, John Green, Tony Towner, Mick Gooding, Ronnie Moore, Rod Fern, Phil Henson. Substitute: Ian Alexander.

Chelsea: Petar Borota, Gary Chivers, Chris Hutchings, Colin Viljoen, Micky Droy, Colin Pates, Peter Rhoades-Brown, John Bumstead, Colin Lee, Clive Walker, Mike Fillery. Substitute: Alan Mayes.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​