Rotherham United captain Richard Wood couldn’t hide his delight following his side’s hard-fought 2-1 victory over Preston North End at AESSEAL New York Stadium.
Wood opened the scoring just after the break with an instinctive finish on the half volley to give Paul Warne’s men a deserved lead in a hard-fought Sky Bet Championship tussle.
North End hit back with just under 10 minutes to play through midfielder Ryan Ledson but the Millers showed great character to grab victory with four minutes to go.
Matt Crooks finished off a superb counter-attacking move with a calm finish after some good wing-play by Flo Jozefzoon to fashion the opportunity.
The Millers saw out the seven minutes added on at the end to record a crucial three points and Wood admits it was a great game to be involved in.
“Everyone was pushing and encouraging each other to perform and it was a great to be involved in it,” Wood explained.
“We ground it out and played to our strengths. We dug in and at times I think we played better football than them as well. We scrapped for everything, ran and gave everything we’ve got.
“The gaffer made a few changes to freshen it up and we put in a good performance against a team that beat top of the league convincingly.”
The defender, famously labelled the ‘wrecking-ball’ by manager Paul Warne for his no nonsense approach in the opposition box, applied a far more cultured finish this time around with a lovely chest and half-volley and Wood admits it was a pleasing goal for him to get.
“It was an instinctive hit, I don’t get many of them so I’m buzzing with it. It’s strange when you do score, it’s really quiet and you don’t know if there’s a problem or something.
"Overall though, I’m just happy to have helped the team get such a big win, we’ve played well in games and not got the points we’ve deserved, so it’s nice to get a reward for a good performance,” Wood added.