Academy 0 v 1 Lincoln - Report
One goal proved the difference between the Millers and Lincoln City as the two sides met at Roundwood in the Youth Alliance League.Rotherham United’s Academy started the game brightly, forging a number of first half opportunities with the most notable threats coming from Fabian Bailey and Darnelle Bailey-King but had to settle for going in at half time with the scores deadlocked.
“We were very competitive in the first half and we had three chances within the first 25 minutes to take the lead,” Academy Manager Garreth Barker told www.themillers.co.uk
The hosts thought they had edged themselves in front before the interval but had the opener chalked off for a foul on the goalkeeper.
“We did have the ball in the back of the net only to have it ruled out for a foul on the goalkeeper. It looked like the ‘keeper dropped it in the box before one of our players tapped it in, but the referee adjudged there to have been a foul.
“We went in at the break happy with the opportunities we’d created and how we’d performed.”
The Millers then fell behind in the second half when a mistake in the back line allowed an Imps’ striker a run on Laurence Bilboe’s goal to despatch what would prove to be the only goal of the game.
“After the restart there was a lapse in concentration in the defence and one of our centre halves made an error in judgement which allowed their player to run in and put it past the goalkeeper,” Barker explained.
“The player in question held his hands up and shouldered the blame which is great but before half time we were happy so to lose as a result of one error was disappointing.
“We did create some chances in the second period but failed to put any of them away. Their goalkeeper pulled off a tremendous save from Trae’s header which proved to win them the game.”
Millers: Bilboe, Bailey (Saxton 77), Peace-McDonald, Rose, Abraham (Smalley 63), Bailey-King, Dickinson, Potts, Redmayne, Wiles, Johnson (Adeyemi 49).
Unused: Fidler, Martin.