PAUL CUTS DOWN BELOVEDCANARIES
Millers boss is Norwich supporter
ROTHERHAM’S interim manager Paul Warne will be hoping his side can continue to upset the odds after the Championship’s bottom side beat Norwich.
On Friday Warne was confirmed in charge of Rotherham until the end of the season, and with Burton losing to Wigan, the Millers have narrowed the gap to safety to nine points with this victory.
He said: “I said to the lads earlier that I didn’t think many people would give us a chance and I thought that’d be in our favour because I understand how the psychology of football works.”
Warne is a self-confessed Norwich fan, and was understandably emotional at this victory.
“My brother’s up and one of my best mate’s up and they’ve both got Norwich season tickets, but they’re Rothers fans and they wanted us to win more than they wanted Norwich to win,” he said.
“I’ve had some nice messages from people back home saying, ‘Look, if Norwich are going to lose I’d rather they lose to us’, so I’ll take that.”
Fighting back tears, he continued: “My father’s really bad, ill, bless him, he’s a Norwich fan, so it’ll mean a lot.”
Having impressed from the bench in last week’s FA Cup exit to Oxford, 20-year-old striker Jerry Yates scored his first league goal on his first league start by converting Tom Adeyemi’s cross on seven minutes.
Norwich striker Nelson Oliveira scored a hat-trick in their last Championship outing, a 3-0 victory over Derby, but was the villain of the piece here, lashing out at Kirk Broadfoot in an off-the-ball incident and receiving Norwich’s fourth red card in six away games.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, City should have gone in level at the break, but defender Timm Klose put his tame shot straight at a Millers defender with the rest of the goal to aim at.
Norwich made up for that six minutes into the second half when Wes Hoolahan curled a wonderful cross to the back post that United allowed Cameron Jerome to head home unchallenged.
Adeyemi put Rotherham back in front just five minutes later, though, turning the ball past John Ruddy from Joe Mattock’s delivery.
Jacob Murphy thought he had put Norwich level again on 65 minutes, but he was the only one in the ground who did; the linesman had his flag up the moment Hoolahan’s through ball released him.
The roles were reversed seconds later, with half the ground celebrating Yates’ volley from another Adeyemi ball before realising it had flown inches wide of the post.
The defeat heaps more pressure on Norwich manager Alex Neil, who said: “There’s nothing I can do about that, the fans will say what they’re going to say. I thought once we went down to ten men we were the more offensive team and went to try and win the game, but obviously we came up short.
“After the Derby result everybody’s saying how well we played and that’s the exact same team that took the field, so…
“The message from the board is ‘disappointing day’, the sending off’s obviously not helped us, but the lads’ reaction with ten men was good.
“But ultimately we didn’t win the game and, to be honest, at the moment for us, points are more important than performances.”