A winning match report by Samuel Jackson
Samuel Jackson was the proud winning journlist of the recent Wingfield Journalism Programme and will be in attendance for Saturday's game against Leyton Orient. Below is his winning report from the game against Gillingham.
On Saturday the Millers got a vital 3 points to extend their unbeaten run to seven games.
Rotherham were going into the fixture in 7th place with Gillingham lower down the table in 16th. But the win took Steve Evans and the team up into the promotion places.
The game got off to an energetic start when, in the 9th minute, Alex Revell’s flick on reached Rotherham’s in-form striker Nouha Dicko to grab his second goal in two games for the Reds. The Millers loved Dicko’s ‘shoot on sight’ policy.
Rotherham started to calm the game down until a quarter of the game had gone when their counter attack eventually fell to Kieran Agard who pounced onto the chance for a real poacher’s finish. It was Agard’s 11th goal of the campaign.
The Gills were forced into an early change with John Mousinho making way for Myles Weston. Before half time the Reds were also made to make a sub with Joe Skarz pulling up with a hamstring problem. This caused Richard Brindley to move to right back and allow young James Tavenier to left back.
After the half hour mark Rotherham yet again sprung on a counter attack when Ben Pringle’s solo effort found its way to the bottom left corner of the net.
The Millers’ defence was very strong to keep the lively Lee Kedwell quiet.
The on-loan defender, Tavenier, was having a dream debut making the keeper work with a stinging shot.
After half time the game started going in Gillingham’s favour when, in the 47th minute, they had their first shot on target.
But, as the half went on, Rotherham got back into the game with shots flying in from Tavenier, Dicko and Pringle towards Stuart Nelson in goal.
Later in the second half, Gills sub Adoibeyo Akinfenwa made an immediate impact with his first touch by flicking the ball on to Cody Macdonald who’s first time shot scraped past Adam Collin.
The final goal came from the Newcastle United loanee, Tavenier, who received a beautifully weighted ball and eased past the defenders to slot the ball home with confidence.
The game slowed down to the finish with the final whistle being to Gillingham’s delight.
After the game Lee Frecklington said “Tavenier did very well and made the switch from right to left back comfortably which helped us”.
With Rotherham playing like this, the Christmas fixture list will be simple for a confident Millers side – like a fairytale of New York.