Game on at third attempt but Rams have nothing to cheer
ROONEY’S MEN CONCEDE THREE IN FINAL 15 MINUTES AGAINST MILLERS
DERBY County crashed 3-0 to Rotherham United in a crucial clash near the bottom of the Championship.
A tough, full-blooded contest was goalless until Rotherham’s late treble earned them the points at the New York Stadium.
Michael Ihiekwe, Michael Smith and Ryan Giles scored in the final 15 minutes after Derby’s new signing Lee Gregory had missed a golden opportunity to put the Rams ahead.
It means the Millers have completed the double over Derby in the space of a few weeks and have closed the gap on the Rams to two points, and they have two games in hand.
This was a third attempt to get the fixture on after it had been twice postponed previously – in December due to a positive coronavirus test in the Millers camp and on Tuesday night due to a waterlogged pitch.
Four of Derby’s five loan signings made on transfer deadine day were named among the substitutes. Teden Mengi, Lee Gregory, Patrick Roberts and Beni Baningime were in the match-day 20. The one new loan signing not involved was defender George Edmundson, who is close to fitness following a recent hernia operation.
Derby make one change to the side that beat Bristol City on Saturday. Martyn Waghorn came in for Polish international Krystian Bielik, who is set for another long spell out with another ACL knee injury.
The Rams went into the contest looking for a fourth consecutive win and a fourth clean sheet on the spin. They had shut out the opposition in eight of their previous 11 League matches.
The table before the game highlighted the importance of the meeting. Derby, in 20th, sat five points above 23rd-place Rotherham, who had two games in hand.
“It is a massive game,” manager Wayne Rooney said in his pre-match press conference. “It will be a defining moment in our season if we can win, that is how important this game is.”
Derby hoped to put on a better display than when they lost 1-0 at home to Rotherham last month but the home side adopted the same energetic pressing in a bid to stop Derby settling.
The physical aerial challenge the Rams would have expected was evident from early on and defender Matt Clarke won three headers in the opening exchanges.
When Derby asked questions of Rotherham, Viktor Johansson gathered a low centre from Jason Knight with Colin Kazim-richards waiting for a tap in.
In another raid down the right, Nathan Byrne’s low cross was heading towards Kazim-richards before Richard Wood diverted the ball behind.
Derby’s good spell continued with Waghorn’s bicycle kick from Kazimrichards’ flick-on just clearing the bar before Johansson raced from his goal to clear as Kazim-richards closed in.
The first save of note came from David Marshall, who dived to his left to push a drive from Rotherham’s Smith round a post. This brought a spell of pressure from the Millers and Derby had to dig in.
Clark Robertson headed over from a corner and Jamie Lindsay’s strike flashed narrowly wide as Rotherham finished the half strongly but Derby’s resilience saw them through.
Johansson parried a curling effort from Max Bird early in the second half, and both teams continued to work positions of promise but could not find the final pass, cross or finish to make them count.
Gregory and Roberts came on for their debuts, and Gregory had a chance to put Derby ahead with his first touch. Roberts linked with Byrne, whose prefect cross begged to be finished but Gregory glanced a header wide.
When the breakthrough came, it came from Rotherham after 76 minutes. A free kick into the area was flicked on by Smith for Ihiekwe to poke the ball in and then Smith doubled the home side’s lead five minutes later.
Baningime was handed his Derby debut but there was more pain for the Rams when Rotherham grabbed a third goal two minutes from time through Ryan Giles.