Millers Out of Cup

Rotherham United were well and truely beaten by non-league Luton Town this evening at Kenilworth Road in the FA Cup Second Round replay.

Rotherham should have scored in the opening minutes when an Ian Sharps header was cleared off the line by Rossi Jarvis and a minute later George Pilkington cleared a Nicky Law corner off the line. After that the Millers seem to fall to sleep and Town took control. Some good play between Kevin Gallen and Jarvis found Kevin Nicholls who in turn found an unmarked Adam Newton. Newton turned and fired past Andy Warrington into the back of the net. Straight away Newton had another clear chance but put his shot was just wide but it wasn't long before the Hatters doubled their lead after Claude Gnakpa was pulled down and from the resulting free kick Alan White rose above everyone to head the ball in the net. At the other end Adam Le Fondre had a shot which was easily saved by Kevin Pilkington while White cleared a dangerous looking cross from Mark Lynch. Two minutes before half-time, Nicholls released Newton down the left who found Gallen in the area but the strikers header lifted over the crossbar.

The home side dominated most of the second half too, although Pilkington had to save from Kevin Ellison early on. Three minutes in and Ian Sharps did well to clear from a Nicholls free kick with Tom Pope making a clearance shortly afterwards from the same player. White had a header go over the bar while Le Fondre had a shot on fifty-five minutes from outside the box which rose just over. Sharps had a couple of shots that led to nothing before Gallen neatly placed the ball in front of Murray who found Gnakpa. Gnakpa seemed to walk past two defenders and blasted the ball into the back of the net to make it three-nil. The Millers had a few minutes of possession after this with Gary Roberts having a shot from twenty-five yards out saved by Pilkington and a few minutes later Roberts found the head of Drewe Broughton, on for Tom Pope, but when it looked easier to score the tall centre-forward headed against the bar and it went out to safety. Just before the end of the game the Hatters would have made it four if not for Andy Warrington twice saving from Tom Craddock and then Sharps clearing another Craddock shot off the line.

A sad day and a long way back for the travelling Millers tonight. What on earth went wrong? And, I wonder how many will be travelling to Bradford on Saturday?

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