Alf double beats Town

Two goals in the first half from top scorer Adam Le Fondre was enough to win the game for Rotherham United and take them up from fifth to fourth this afternoon at Don Valley.

Le Fondre could have scored in the opening minute when a good ball in from Tom Pope, reinstated to the first team in place of Drewe Broughton, just couldn`t be turned in by Le Fondre. A bad back pass from Joseph to Andy Warrington, caused the Millers` 'keeper to mis-kick and Nathan Jarman picked up the lose ball but his shot was a bit airy-fairy and went straight back to Warrington. Four minutes later, at the other end, Le Fondre received a ball from Mickey Cummins but his shot went just wide. But the home side did take the lead on eight minutes after a number of good passes found Cummins who fed Le Fondre, who was in space in the area and slotted the ball past Nick Colgan in Grimsby`s goal. Neither team could produce much after that until the half hour mark when Le Fondre turned provider for Pope but the tall striker headed the ball over. The Millers had a shout for a penalty when Gary Roberts slid the ball into the path of Le Fondre but a Grimsby defender got there first, although it looked to some that he had hit the ball out for a corner with his hand. Seven minutes from half-time, a Nicky Law corner found Cummins whose header was blocked but Le Fondre was on hand and he slotted the ball into the back of the net. Just before half-time, Marc Joseph had a shot from some twenty-yards out but it was deflected for a corner, which came to nothing.

So to the second half and, in my eyes, a bit of a disappointing one for the Millers. Instead of going for it and looking like a team who were two up, they tended to hold back and started to mis-kick balls and the game became scrappy. Grimsby`s Linwood had a free header from a corner but he put it over the bar. On sixty-six minutes, Ellison collected a poor ball out from Peter Bore but Le Fondre didn`t get the ball cleanly and his shot went high and wide. Ten minutes from time Law made a run down the wing and put in a good ball to Roberts but he was sent tumbling in the area, and the Rotherham players called for a penalty but referee Eddie Ilderton was having none of it. Six minutes from time, Le Fondre should have had his hat-trick after Law had gone past two Town players and put in a good ball to the striker but he found Colgan on good form as he tried to curl the ball round him but was foiled. Ellison had chance to make it three not long after but Colgan got down to make a good save. In the last minute of time added on, Adam Proudlock, on for Chambers, got the ball to an unmarked Wes Fletcher who put his shot past Warringotn to make it two-one.

Loanee, Gavin Gunning played the full ninety minutes and looked OK, though seemed to tire towards the end. Marcus Marshall came on for the three minutes of time added on.

It was a much better display in the first half than Tuesday, though it couldn`t be much worse! The players passed the ball to one another and played like a team. The second half was scrappy with passes going all over the place. But whatever the game was like, we got three points out of it.

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