Millers Stun U's

Four goals in fifteen minutes of the first half was enough to give Rotherham United their first win at the Kassam Stadium last night.

The Millers began the game full of energy and it was Ben Pringle who had the first two shots on goal, one saved by the U`s 'keeper Luke McCormick and the second cleared by Liam Davis. On twenty minutes the home side had the chance to score when Sean Rigg got behind the Millers defence and with only Andy Warrington to beat put the ball well wide. He will probably regret not getting that on target when on the half hour mark David Noble tried his luck from twenty-five yards out and with f McCormick standing waiting for the ball to go to him it took a wicked deflection off Andrew Whing and slowly crept over the line. Noble then ran the length of the pitch to the two hundred and thirty Millers fans telling everyone in his way that it was his goal! Three minutes later the visitors doubled their lead when a Ben Pringle corner was met by Kari Arnason who headed the ball neatly into the back of the net. With five minutes to go before half-time Noble chipped a lovely ball to Pringle who in turn found the onrushing Johnny Mullins and the skipper made it three from sixteen yards out with a magnificent strike. And it got embarrassing for the home side when four minutes later Alex Revell crossed to Pringle who easily lost his marker and tapped the ball in from close range to make it four.

The second half was a bit of a damp squib after the first and Oxford came out the better in the opening five minutes without actually causing the Millers any problems. They had a couple of corners which didn't trouble Warrington and Claude Davis, who had been very solid in defence in the first half, limped off after five minutes with Mark Bradley coming on in his place. With the Millers fans urging the team to get five they nearly did on the hour mark when Revell flicked a header to Frecklington and only a good piece of defending from former Miller Michael Raynes stopped him scoring. Raynes was also on hand late in the game when Kayode Odejayi, on for Revell, came close but the centre-back managed to deflect his shot away from goal.

To be honest, at half-time, all the Millers there sort of looked at one another and said 'what was that?`! I don`t think any of us quite believed it! I think it was a bit of a shame that Evans didn't introduce another striker earlier in the second half and really go for it - but blimey, four-nil at half-time, I don`t think anyone would have expected that!

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