Grabban Grabs Points for Millers

Rotherham United went back up the table to tenth place in their bid to get a play-off position with their one-nil win over Plymouth Argyle at Don Valley this afternoon.

The Millers started brightly and in the opening minutes a Ben Pringle free-kick was hastily cleared by Darren Purse and with the ball being put back in by Alex Revell, Argyle 'keeper, Jake Cole, did keep hold of it as Lewis Grabban challenged him and a few minutes later Cole was on hand again after a Pringle shot at goal saw the 'keeper get there just before a hovering Danny Schofield. On fifteen minutes at the other end, Simon Walton, in his own half, looked up and saw that Millers 'keeper, Rhys Taylor, in a somewhat peculiar position and the visitors skipper shot low and hard with Taylor heaving a sigh of relief as the ball bounced wide. After that it was all the Millers and they were nearly rewarded on twenty minutes when a Sam Wood curling cross found the head of Revell but, with Cole caught flat-footed, the midfielder couldn`t hit the target. Pringle had another couple of shots cleared by Purse and a Danny Harrison and Schofield had shots that went harmlessly over the crossbar. In the final minutes of the half, Nick Chadwick had a shot blocked by Michael Raynes and Rhys Taylor turned the ball over from another shot from the same player.

Gareth Evans came on for Schofield for the second half and was lively from the start and only some good defending from the visitors kept shots from the likes of Grabban, Evans and Pringle out. On seventy minutes the Millers finally broke the deadlock after Evans had been fouled in the area by Purse and Grabban got his seventeenth goal of the season with the resulting penalty. A few minutes later, Shaun Harrad, on for Pringle got himself into a shooting position at the corner of the box but, with Cole beaten, he hooked his shot into the side netting. The only real problem for the Millers came from Onismor Bhasera who took two free kicks in quick succession but Johnny Mullins was there to firmly head the ball away. In the final minutes of the game Grabban got the ball and ran down the right but, instead of getting a cross in where both Harrad and Revell were waiting, he had a shot himself that Cole saved. A minute later Harrad shot across goal and saw the ball just lift over the bar while Evans should have sealed the win when he rounded Cole, who had come way out of his area, but he seemed to slice the ball and it flew just over the bar.

Well that was a much better performance in my eyes than of late and we had enough chances to win by three or four. Good to see Gareth Evans back and think he worked well as did the defence today.

Difficult today, for good reasons. I thought Grabs had a good game and Schofield in the first half (not sure why he was taken off) and his replacement, Gareth Evans did well too. Can't fault Pringle either.
So, because he never puts a foot wrong, I think I will give it to Johnny Mullins!

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