Rotherham United’s Academy were narrowly edged out in a closely contested fixture with Scunthorpe United, which saw the hosts nick a 1-0 victory at the weekend to put them top of the pack in the Youth Alliance League.
There was nothing to choose between the sides in the opening half despite Millers stopper Charlie Farrar being called into action on a few occasions, meaning the scores were deadlocked at 0-0.
However, the breakthrough did come for the hosts seven minutes after the restart when some wonderful individual work from Tom Pugh saw him net the only goal of the game. The Iron midfielder began his surge around halfway before dancing into the box before unleashing a powerful strike that Farrar couldn’t prevent from finding the top corner this time.
The Millers did forge a number of chances, the most notable of which came in the 71st minute following a ball over the top, but a resilient home defence held out until the end.
Millers: Farrar; Hull, Southern-Cooper, Spence, Johnson (Beeden 23); Gateshill, Carlton, Hodgkinson, Hutchinson (Wenham 67); Diouf (Etia 67), Gratton .
Unused: Evans
Scunthorpe United: Riches, Baker, Morfoot, Pugh, Barks, Harrison (Chadli, 62), L. Gallimore (Shrimpton, 69), Collins, Jessop, Okafor, Silva.
Substitutes not used: T. Collins.