Attendance: 6,675 (Away 497)

Match Referee: Jon Moss (Yorkshire)

CLICK HERE FOR FULL MATCH STATISTICS AND TEAM LINE-UPS

It was a happy new year for Rovers as they saw off Rotherham in their opening game of the year for the second year in a row thanks to goals in the first half from Shane Sherriff and Gareth Taylor.

Despite a late consolation for former Rovers striker Delroy Facey, Rovers were worthy of the three points that ensured they stay in touch with the promotion chasers in League One.

Ronnie Moore made one enforced change to the side that began the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest as a result of injuries to both Gavin Ward and John Achterberg.  Young Manchester City keeper Joe Hart took his place in goal for Rovers having only been announced as a loan signing this morning.

The game got off to a sluggish start with Rotherham captain and former Rovers player Ian Sharps forcing the home side to change ends and shoot towards the Kop in the first half instead of the usual attacking of the Cowshed End first.

Rovers hit the woodwork twice in the opening twenty minutes with Shane Sherriff firing a shot onto the post after a deflection after just five minutes of the game.  Chris Greenacre then took his turn to hit the woodwork in the 20^th minute after chasing a ball that looked destined to go out of play but instead headed it over Cutler in the Millers goal and onto the top of the crossbar before going out.

In between those two incidents, Ritchie Partridge fired wide for the Millers as Rovers dominated the opening part of the match.

Midway through the first half, Chris Shuker broke clear and rounded goalkeeper Cutler to score but the linesman on the Main Stand side had flagged for offside fairly quickly and the goal was disallowed.

Just two minutes after being denied a goal though, Rovers did deservedly take the lead.  After the visitors twice failed to clear their lines, Steve Davies beat his man and crossed into the path of Shane Sherriff who made no mistake from twelve yards to give Rovers the lead.

It seemed to be all Rovers after that for a while and Greenacre had a couple of decent chances and John Mullin shot wide.

Just two minutes before the break though, Rovers gave themselves a 2-0 lead with one of the assists of the season from the excellent Paul McLaren.  The midfielder’s 35-yard high pass was met by the head of Gareth Taylor who gave Cutler no chance and gave Rovers a two-goal cushion they deserved at the break.

Greenacre should have put Rovers three up at the start of the second half after good work by Chris Shuker but he failed to connect properly with the winger’s cross.

Rovers again had the better of the chances in the second half but debutant Hart in the Rovers goal had to be at this best to deny Will Hoskins with a super save around the hour mark.

Hart also had to collect sliced defensive clearances from Sherriff and Davies in the space of a minute but Rovers still looked solid at the back.

With 13 minutes remaining the excellent Steve Davies was replaced on the left wing by Carl Tremarco and just four minutes later the visitors had a goal of their own to celebrate from who else but former Rovers striker Delroy Facey.

Facey whipped in a cross from the left that deceived everyone including Hart and dipped in at the far post to make it 2-1.

A Chris McCready clearance sliced off a Rotherham player and looped towards goal shortly afterwards but yet again Hart pulled off a fine fingertip save to tip the ball over the bar.  From the resulting corner Rovers almost conceded but the ball flashed wide.  The incident resulted in an angry looking dispute between Chris McCready and Gareth Taylor that resulted in both players being spoken too by the referee.

Rovers played out the four minutes of injury time with relative ease and recorded their first win in five matches.  McCready and Taylor shook ands at the end of the game but what comes from that incident in the future remains to be seen.

Paul McLaren – Seems to be a regular occurance just at the moment but again McLaren was excellent in the centre for Rovers and his cross for Taylor’s goal, as at Forest on Saturday was superb.

"I thought we murdered them in the first half, it was men against boys.  They were desperate for half time, we didn't want it.  We hung on a bit in the second half, but I thought we were magnificent in the first half.  Give them a bit of credit, they're not just going to come here and die.  In the second half they made chances and used a difficult formation for us to cope with.”

"It's pleasing that we've won.  I think that's one defeat in nine now.  This is our big time now.  We've got three out of the next four at home and it's vital we win the home games."

"I thought Joe did well. He's only a baby and is still learning.  It was panic stations really.  It will be three to four weeks before John is back from his ankle injury and Gavin can't kick it.”

"I must have made a million phone calls yesterday trying to get hold of everybody, and that is difficult on New Year's Eve.  I spoke to Stuart Pearce and he was brilliant.  He's given us Joe for a month, and to have somebody of that quality is great.  He's a big lad and he kicks the ball a mile."

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