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SHREWSBURY 1 ROTHERHAM 0 - MATCH REPORT
TWO teams with promotion aspirations put on a great advertisement for League Two football and showed why they will both in contention when the prizes are handed out in May.
This second versus third contest lived up to its billing as the division's match of the day and the only down side was that there had to be a loser.
Ronnie Moore and his men were the fall guys, emerging with nothing despite battering Shrewsbury for most of the second half.
Even though the season is barely a month old, the home side celebrated their win like it was a promotion six-pointer. By the time the two meet again at Don Valley Stadium in February then this fixture probably will be.
The Millers paid the price for "five minutes of madness" as Moore called it.
Slow out of the traps, they were caught cold by a sloppy early goal that proved so costly.
Craig Disley played a one-two with Mark Wright down the left and was allowed to advance to the byline and pull the ball back for an unmarked Lionel Ainsworth to apply the finish.
It was just the start the home side, backed by a vociferous crowd at the newly-named Greenhous Meadow, wanted.
Their manager, Graham Turner, back at the club where he made his name, has been given plenty of resources to mount a top-end challenge and a couple of his new signings, striker Matt Harrold and winger Mark Wright, interested Rotherham during the summer.
Wright was the more impressive in this game with some smart work down the left flank. He gave Millers right-back Johnny Mullins, still striving for full fitness, a testing afternoon.
Ainsworth on the opposite side was impressive too and both showed up well as the hosts went on to enjoy the best of the first half.
There would have been big complaints from the Rotherham camp had he managed to find the net in another early thrust after Tom Newey went down injured in the box. The referee waved play on and Andy Warrington, back in goal after a one-match injury absence, managed to parry.
If Warrington wanted a gentle re-introduction to action, he didn't get it in the first period. He had to pull out a full-stretch save to deny his old teammate and now Shrewsbury captain Ian Sharps and also did well to keep out a vicious cross cum shot from the lively Ainsworth as well as a stinger from 20 yards.
A deflected effort from Danny Harrison and a Kevin Ellison header provided Rotherham's only two real moments of threat in the first half and Moore was probably relieved to get them in for the interval team talk.
Manager's View
We were fantastic. Some of our football was a joy to watch. Since my early years here I have never seen us dominate a second half like that.
If we had got one goal then we would probably have gone on and won it comfortably. We lost a game we didn't deserve to and we paid for the first ten minutes when we started poorly.
Otherwise we were fantastic and to have as much of the play as we did and not come away with something is soul destroying.
How they got out of jail I will never know. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.
You saw Shrewsbury celebrate at the end.
It was like they'd won the FA Cup they were so relieved.
Got a view? Leave a comment below.
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Whatever he said to them, it certainly did the trick.
The Millers emerged for the second half a transformed side, especially when Paul Warne came on for the injured (and ineffective) Tom Elliott four minutes in.
The industrious veteran's enthusiasm and hard running seemed to inspire his teammates and Rotherham upped their game and nullified the threat of Wright and Ainsworth.
A "goal" by Ellison, disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper, was just a signal of what was to come.
Jason Taylor, prominent in central midfield, zipped in a shot which the keeper could only parry into the path of dangerman Adam Le Fondre, whose control for once let him down.
Taylor then brought another good save from Chris Neal with a punt through a crowded goalmouth.
Moore was right to mention the performance of Neal afterwards because he kept his team in it with some fantastic saves as the clock ticked down.
The Shrews stopper smothered from Harrison at the second attempt, somehow got down to an angled effort from Le Fondre and stooped low to keep out a goal-bound drive from Warne, colliding with the post and copping for an injury in the process.
When he finally recovered, the home side mounted a rare break and should have grabbed a second goal only for Wright, in a threatening position on the edge of the box, to curl wide of the far post.
Mullins had worked overtime to curb the threat of Wright and, exhausted, was substituted with a few minutes to go.
That gave Nick Fenton his first outing of the season on his comeback from a troublesome calf injury.
But he was a spectator as the Millers pressed right to the finish with a stream of corner-kicks right under the noses of the 530 travelling Rotherham supporters.
They did their best to suck the ball in but the home goal continued to live a charmed life and whenever a loose ball bounced in the penalty area there was always a blue shirt there to clear the danger.
The Millers can take consolation from the fact they will play worse than this and win.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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