WILD WILL’S COSTLY LUNGE... Millers pay for Vaulks’ off day
ROTHERHAM skipper Will Vaulks was shown a straight red card as Sheffield United cruised to victory in the South Yorkshire derby.
Vaulks, 25, was dismissed for a wild lunge on Blades wingback Sam Baldock after just 28 minutes.
Already trailing to Jack O’Connell’s well-worked opener, the struggling Millers were shorn of their captain’s dangerous long throws and reduced to defending with a flat back 10 for much of a one-sided second half.
Keeper Marek Rodak kept the score down with a string of smart saves, but a sweet strike from Mark Duffy finally ended Rotherham’s dogged resistance.
“Will is really competitive,” said Millers boss Paul Warne. “He plays with his heart on his sleeve and that’s why he’s so good for us.
“I haven’t seen it back yet. But I think because Will had just given the ball away, the ref is thinking ‘Oh my god, he’s lost his head, it’s going to be a bad tackle’.
“I don’t think he’s gone in with any intent to hurt the lad, but obviously his exuberance has got a red.
“For me, it was a strong yellow. Normally when it’s a red, there’s a big kerfuffle in the technical area and all sorts, but that wasn’t the case. I thought it was on the edge of harsh.”
Talking of technical area shenanigans, the first half was enlivened by an amusing incident that also involved Vaulks.
Having forged ahead when O’Connell deftly steered Ollie Norwood’s low corner inside the far post, United were subjected to a fusillade of tricky long throws from the Millers man.
Spotting that Vaulks was using a towel to dry the ball, an enterprising steward chucked the towel into the crowd – seemingly on the orders of the home bench.
“I told the ref that the towel was there for both teams,” said Warne. “Alan Knill (the Blades assistant) said they didn’t want to use it. I said ‘Fine, but it’s there for you mate’. And the ref was happy with that.
“When it gets thrown into the crowd… well, we’re in all sort of trouble then, aren’t we? I asked the fourth official to walk another one down there, but he wouldn’t. I wasn’t going to try it, because I’d get cups and everything smacked off my head.
“In the end, I think the ref just decided to send Will off so nobody had any more towel issues. It was an absolute winwin for him wasn’t it?”
Warne was joking, of course, and cut a relatively chipper figure, despite spending another weekend lodged in the bottom three.
His optimism was understandable. Despite their forlorn cause, Warne’s players defended with guile and intelli- gence, holding their shape and discipline amidst suffocating pressure from the home side.
Even when they did spring a leak, Rodak produced wonderful saves to deny David McGoldrick, clean through on goal, and Enda Stevens, who met a Duffy cross just six yards out.
That said, Rotherham rarely entered the opposition half and Chris Wilder was even afforded the luxury of swapping a centre-half for a striker as United pressed for the killer second.
That eventually arrived 12 minutes from time, Duffy lancing a precise 20-yard effort into the top corner to cap a sparkling second-half display.
“Duffs has been instrumental in what we’ve done here over the last two years,” said Wilder, whose side are four points off leaders Norwich and have yet to concede a home goal in 2019.
“He’s someone who make us play. But if there’s a slight criticism – and we talk to him all the time about this – is that with the technical quality he’s got, he should score more goals. Now he has, I’m sure he’ll be rattling on to us about it.”
Wilder also hailed the Blades’ vanquished opponents.
“They’re a spirited group,” he added. “Results haven’t been great, but I never see them getting done by three, four, five. They’re a stubborn team and that was a tough game.”