Town 0-1 Rotherham - Half-Time Saturday, 19th Mar 2016 16:07 Leon Best’s goal a minute before half-time has given Rotherham a 1-0 lead over the Blues at Portman Road at half-time. Boss Mick McCarthy named the same team which beat Blackburn 2-0 on Tuesday with new loan signing Liam Feeney amongst the subs. Also on the bench were ex-Miller Ben Pringle and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who came in for the injured Luke Varney, while Michael Crowe took the place of the ill Dean Gerken as the sub keeper. Rotherham included former Town loanee Paul Green on their bench, while Paddy Kenny, who was on a short-term deal with the Blues last season without making an appearance, was the Millers’ sub keeper. The Blues created the game’s first opportunity in the fifth minute when skipper Luke Chambers crossed from the right and Freddie Sears, playing on the left of a front three with Daryl Murphy on the right and the more central Brett Pitman dropping deeper, headed over. Town had the better of the opening quarter of an hour but without threatening again until the 16th minute when, after good work down the left from Jonathan Douglas, Pitman teed up Sears, but his shot failed to test Lee Camp in the Rotherham goal. On 21 Lee Frecklington claimed he’d been fouled by Douglas as he broke into the area chasing a pass over the top but the former Peterborough man appeared just to have been out-muscled. A minute later, with the visitors now on top, Richard Smallwood brought the ball in from the left and hit a low shot which Bartosz Bialkowski claimed easily. In the 37th minute, after Bialkowski had been crowded out as a long throw came in from the right, Frecklington looped the loose ball wide. Two minutes later, the Blues carved out an opportunity but Camp confidently dealt with Chambers’s shot, to ironic cheers from a section of the Town support in the Sir Bobby Robson Stand. At the other end, Grant Ward struck a deflected effort from the edge of the box which Bialkowski pushed behind to his left. Rotherham had shaded a not overly engaging half and a minute before the break they went in front. Following a Town freekick in the Millers’ half, Douglas played a loose pass on halfway and Matt Derbyshire broke away down the right before crossing to the unmarked Leon Best, who turned home before Christophe Berra could get back to intercept. There was no time for the Blues to hit back before referee Stephen Martin blew his final whistle, signalling boos from a frustrated Town support. Even before the goal it had been a disappointing half from Town, who after starting positively had allowed the visitors to get on top and on the balance of the half overall deserved their lead. Town: Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Hyam, Douglas, Sears, Murphy, Pitman. Subs: Crowe, Maitland-Niles, Feeney, Pringle, Bru, Digby, Foley. Rotherham: Camp, Mattock, Broadfoot (c), Frecklington, Kelly, Halford, G Ward, Derbyshire, Smallwood, Doyley, Best. Subs: Kenny, Wood, D Ward, Green, Burke, Clarke-Harris, Newell. Referee: Stephen Martin (Staffordshire).
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