Vaulks nudges Rotherham closer to coveted play-off spot
ROTHERHAM UNITED took a huge step towards play-off qualification with this win over Gillingham last night.
Midfielder Will Vaulks netted his first goal of the calendar year as the Millers all but secured a top-six spot at Priestfield.
Manager Paul Warne named an unchanged starting line-up after holding leaders Wigan to a goalless draw at the weekend.
The Gills looked threatening from set pieces as they tried to use their height up front, but Millers almost took the lead with their first attack of the game.
Former Barnsley man Ryan Williams broke away and worked his way past Tomas Holy only to fire into the side netting.
The hosts threatened with Luke O’Neill heading Conor Wilkinson’s teasing cross over before the visitors found the side netting again after Ben Purrington took advantage of Holy’s hesitation.
Gillingham’s Callum Reilly went down inside the box, but referee Dean Whitestone waved away the claims for a spot-kick before Rotherham finally broke through in the 20th minute.
They did it with a well-worked goal with Michael Smith holding the ball up neatly before teeing Vaulks up to blast past Holy.
Gills thought they had equalised, but Josh Parker’s 25thminute header was ruled offside.
Just after the break Richard Wood met Jon Taylor’s cross only to head against a sprawling defender just shy of the goalline.
The Gills pushed for an equaliser, but could not create a clearcut chance to test Marek Rodek. GUISELEY’S relegation from the National League was confirmed after this defeat to Barrow.
It was always going to be tough for the Lions and interim manager Sean St Ledger said: “Obviously I’m very disappointed with the relegation and the result as well, we just have to go and try and end the season on a high, with some victories.”
Despite being pitted in tense relegation battles in their two previous campaigns at National League level, Guiseley’s third season in the fifth tier of English football has unquestionably proved to be their most fraught.
The decision to bring forward plans to go full-time under Paul Cox last autumn backfired dramatically and despite a host of players being brought in on permanent deals it failed to yield an upturn in results – quite the opposite in fact.
Cox paid the price for a wretched run of form when he was sacked in February and despite an upturn in team spirit and togetherness and the bringing back into the fold of a number of part-timers who had previously been overlooked, relegation has been on the cards for a good while.
Barrow had a host of chances in the first half, Kingsley James missing the pick of them with a close-range header.
Barrow started the secondhalf well and took the lead on 51 minutes when a Donovan Makoma free-kick was placed into the box, Joe Green came for it and missed it with captain Asa Hall in the right place to power his header in and send the away fans wild.
With time running out, Guiseley threw players at it, the visitors though were able to control most of the possession, but that changed when Donovan Makoma was sent off for putting his hands to the face of Guiseley’s Calum McFadzean.