Swindon Town 2 -Thomson (45+3), Hungbo (81)

Rotherham United 1 – Hall (87)

I suppose you could say this was a game that kept on giving after two red cards on the field, one in the dugout, three goals, of which one was a cracking free-kick, and a nine man Millers team who came so very close to getting a point.

It was a nightmare of a start for Rotherham when just four minutes in an elbow from Jili Buyabu on Jack Thomson saw the Millers loanee get a straight red card leaving the visitors with an uphill task early in the game. Josh Austerfield did well to clear the ball for a corner which saw Thomson deliver into the box for Stephen Negru who put his header over the crossbar. Just before the quarter of an hour mark Millers’ ‘keeper Julian Eyestone did well to save from Matty Virtue before a Swindon corner saw James Ball put the ball wide. Ball then sent a ball in for Billy Kirkman whose shot went wide and a couple of minutes later Kirkman did the same again. A cross in from Dan Butler found the head of Mitchel Clarke who put it wide before another chance for the hosts saw a shot from Snowdon blocked by the Millers defence. Again Austerfield did well to clear for a corner and again the header went wide this time from Tom Nichols. Denzel Hall and Dominic Iorfa also cleared well before the hosts made a substitution on forty-one minutes fetching off James Ball and replacing with former Millers loanee Joseph Hungbo. A header into the box by Negru found Snowdon on the edge of the area his shot well saved by Eyestone. Three minutes into the four added on when a Dan Butler cross found Thomson and his shot from outside the box went into the back of the net to give Swindon the lead going in at half-time.

There were no changes for the start of the second-half with the first minutes belonging to referee Isaac Searle who blew constantly for free-kicks. Jayce Fitzgerald tried his luck from outside the box and brought off a good save from Town ‘keeper Connor Ripley. On the fifty-third minute an injury to skipper Joe Rafferty making the five hundredth appearance of his career was taken off after treatment for a knee injury and replaced by Brandon Williams while Brandon Cover and Aaron Nemane made way for Sonny Aljofree and George Sebine. Five minutes later Town brought on Ollie Palmer to replace Tom Nichols. A ball from Joseph Hungbo found Dan Butler who probably should have done better than hit the ball not only wide but over the bar as well before the first yellow of the game went to Kieran Ngwenya for a foul on Hungbo. With fifteen minutes to go Joe Snowdon sent a ball for Palmer to hit from just outside the box which missed. More changes saw Joel McGregor and James Debayo replace Dan Butler and Joe Snowdon for Swindon while the Millers replaced Josh Austerfield and Paul Mullin with Klaidi Lolos and Tom Bradshaw. Matty Virtue, with Dominic Iorfa nipping at his heels, did well to get the ball through for Aaron Drinan who put the ball into the net and was celebrating when he saw the linesman raise his flag for offside. The referee then pulled the game back showing Iorfa a red card and giving Swindon a free-kick. Referee Searle then made his way to the Rotherham bench and showed manager Alex Bruce a red for what looked like kicking something on the touchline. When the hangbags was all over Hungbo placed the ball for the set-piece and which curled straight into the net to double the lead for the Robins. In the final minutes of the ninety Fitzgerald won a free-kick which he took sending it under the crossbar with Ripley not getting hold of it and dropping it at the feet of Hall who tapped it home to half the deficit. As the board went up for a further eight minutes a ball over the top from Fitzgerald found Sebine who sent it forward. The Town players didn’t clear it and Fitzgerald got to it but in what looked a simple chance he dragged the ball wide, the four hundred travelling fans sitting back in their seats.

The Millers now have to pick themselves up and get a team organised firstly for the Trophy game on Tuesday (surely the young lads will find themselves in the squad for that?) and then for the first FA Cup game of the season away at Bromley next weekend.

Attendance – 7,512 with 406 Millers making the trek to Wiltshire

Referee – Isaac Searle