A match that summed up life in the Championship for Rotherham United

The Millers fans continually watch their side compete, and sometimes even outplay, teams that dwarf them financially, yet they rarely get the points their performances deserve.

The 2-1 defeat against Norwich on Saturday sums up their life at this level pretty well.

It was a story of an early lead, a missed penalty, an own-goal, a red card, conceding a late penalty and ultimately an injury-time loss.

Of course fans want to see their team play at the highest level possible, but this sort of thing must be wearing pretty thin for the Millers faithful.

It was the third game in a row where they have conceded an injury-time goal which changed the outcome of the game, leaving them five points worse off than they really ought to be.

“It's a hard one to take, no matter what the time of the winning goal was, because of how good our performance was,” assistant Richie Barker said.

“The lads are devastated. They wanted to do it for the manager because they're well aware of his Norwich connections.”

“They're also devastated to put in so much effort and come away with nothing. It's a monumental effort for no points.”

Let's analyse the five key moments of the game in chronological order.

The Millers, with their manager watching at home due to being in self-isolation, had a dream start as Freddie Ladapo opened his account for the season with a smart finish in the third minute.

Rotherham should have got that crucial second goal 18 minutes later but Ladapo missed from the spot after Clark Robertson was felled.

Experienced watchers of this team will have sensed at the time that it was going to be a decisive moment of the game.

Norwich got back on level terms in the 68th minute when Michael Ihiekwe put through his own net.

Three minutes later things went further south as Angus MacDonald saw red for a wild lunge on Oliver Skipp.

That tide had turned, yet there were still two glorious chances for the Millers to regain their lead, before the inevitable happened at the death.

Debutant Florian Jozefzoon made a needless tackle, Norwich were awarded a penalty and Jordan Hugill converted in the fifth minute of extra time.

Warne, watching in his shed at home, saw a positive result in a game that means so much to him snatched away from him.

At least he now knows how those long-suffering fans feel.