Commendable Millers still in need of cure for away-day woe
ROTHERHAM UNITED were unable to repeat the heroics of Saturday when they defeated Derby County, as Aston Villa marked manager Steve Bruce’s 99th game in charge with a 2-0 success.
Tammy Abraham put Villa ahead with a 27th-minute goal on his home debut but they had to wait until the 83rd minute before Anwar El Ghazi killed the game off.
Unfortunately for a battling Rotherham side, who have given a good account of themselves upon their return to the Championship, they slipped to a 26th reverse in their last 28 away games in this division.
Villa came out of the blocks in a positive fashion to put immediate pressure on the Millers but their finishing power was lacking. Twice in quick succession goalkeeper Marek Rodak was the right place at the right time to keep out efforts from Conor Hourihane and Jonathan Kodjia.
On the back of their 1-0 home win over Derby, the Millers were surprisingly quick to counter-attack and were far from over-awed by their opposition, exemplified when Richie Towell played a neat one-two and watched his low shot whistle narrowly wide.
Despite their limited resources Rotherham were highly competitive and gallantly defied Villa until the 27th minute when Jack Grealish’s astute pass put Kodjia in possession who found Abraham to notch a simple tap-in goal.
Villa had an escape when Jon Taylor failed to convert a Zak Vyner cross. But the game was put out of Rotherham’s reach when El Ghazi converted a right-wing cross from Ahmed Elmohamady. HOME form emphatically proved the bedrock of Middlesbrough’s last successful promotion crusade in 2015-16.
During that momentous season, the Teessiders took more home points than anyone in the second tier and won 16 matches and lost just twice, conceding a division-best tally of just eight goals along the way.
During the previous campaign when Boro reached the Championship play-off final in 2014-15, they also had the jointbest home points tally and best goals against record on home soil – and the signs of 2018 point towards a rewinding of the clock.
Boro have won all three home league matches this season without conceding a goal and back-to-back Riverside appointments against Bolton and Swansea are timely, given that Tony Pulis’s side surrendered their unbeaten second-tier record in disappointing fashion at Norwich on Saturday.
All told, Boro have won their last six home league matches in the regular season and just the promoted duo of Wolves and Fulham have left the Riverside with three points so far this calendar year.
Highlighting the need for an instant response after last weekend’s events at Carrow Road, central defender Aden Flint said: “It was disappointing, but that is football. We were going to lose eventually.
“We go again and it is a quick tunaround and we are hoping to put that result right.
“We have Bolton and then a massive game with Swansea on Saturday. But it is Bolton first and we can hopefully kick-start a little run again.”