BENITEZ: MILLER TIME WILL COME
WHEN the best attacking side in the division go up against the worst defence, the result is rarely in any doubt.
But although it went to the form side here thanks to Christian Atsu’s first-half strike, there was plenty in bottom-of-the-table Rotherham’s performance to restore hope to the Millers fans.
That position was even endorsed by Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez, who said: “We won against a good team. I said before that they don’t deserve to be where they are, and I would say after the game that they were pushing and pushing. With this kind of play and this kind of work rate they will win games and be higher in the table.
“Rotherham started with high intensity and were pressing really high so it was difficult for us to keep the ball and pass the ball, but little by little we had more control.
“If you have just an impression of the game you will see they were pushing, throw-ins, corners, a lot of dangerous situations; but if you analyse the stats they had ten shots and we had 20.”
Millers manager Alan Stubbs concurred with Benitez and believes his side are capable of securing a fourth successive year of Championship football.
He said: “There were certain aspect of the game that we’re certainly getting better.
“Over the past two games we’ve played well against the top two sides. On Tuesday we played Huddersfield and could have taken a point, and here one bit of quality has been the difference.
“I’ve got to say there were positives out of the display. There’s no positive out of the result, but for me it’s a step in the right direction.
“If they keep performing like that it won’t be long before they start picking up points.
“We took the game to Newcastle and if I’m being honest I’d say it was a pretty uncomfortable 90 minutes for them.”
Newcastle failed to impress against a very willing Rotherham side in the first half, though the Millers needed Dominic Ball’s superb clearance off the line to keep out Yoan Gouffran’s 13th-minute strike from Atsu’s cross.
That was followed by a volley of five good Rotherham chances in as many minutes, beginning with Joe Newell’s 20-yard effort that Karl Darlow did well to tip over the bar.
The lively Izzy Brown had a shot deflected wide shortly after, and winger Jon Taylor hit the bar with a fierce strike from out wide.
Ball was then just unable to meet a well-crossed corner in the six-yard box, and Tom Adeyemi shot just wide from long range to round off an impressive attacking spell.
Benitez then instructed the Magpies to take the pace out of Rotherham’s blistering start, with Shelvey dropping to a deeper midfield position.
The strategy paid off and there were no more Rotherham chances before Atsu cut inside onto his favoured left foot and found the top corner on 41 minutes.
The winger went close to doubling the lead eight minutes after the break when he raced onto Mohamed Diame’s excellent through ball, but Lee Camp was able to push his shot wide.
Rotherham went close with two agonising late chances, as a Newcastle defender hit his own post and Will Vaulks’ header was blocked with Darlow beaten, but the visitors hung on.