It's Millers Time Not City's

Last updated : 27 November 2013 By CNS at Sixfields

COVENTRY CITY 0-3 ROTHERHAM UNITED 

City :Murphy, Adams, Webster, J.Clarke, Phillips, Fleck, Thomas, Baker, Moussa, Wilson, Daniels (Christie 66). Subs: Burge, Garner, Haynes, Maund, Baker-Richardson, Lawton.

Rotherham: Collin, Brindley, Skarz, Arnason, Frecklington (Mills 92), Revell (Davis 92), Milsom, Pringle, Morgan, Agard, Dicko (Tubbs 90). Subs: Shearer, 

HT CCFC 0-0 RUFC FT CCFC 0-3 RUFC ATT 1961
Goals Nouha Dicko 57, Alex Revell 68, Keiren Agard pen 73
Referee J.Moss Booked Thomas, Phillips
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Coventry City failed to produce the reaction demanded of them and went down to a 3-0 defeat against Rotherham United.

A cold November night saw Coventry City take on Rotherham United at Sixfields. City went into the game without Leon Clarke, who has a hip injury, forcing manager Steven Pressley to reshuffle his pack, playing Billy Daniels up front and bringing in Conor Thomas after his suspension along with Aaron Phillips.

Rotherham, who had problems with their strike force, started with Nouha Dicko, a player on loan from Wigan linked to City by one newspaper and had former Sky Blue keeper Scott Shearer on the bench. Just before kick off, the Millers injury problems grew when they were forced into a change when Rob Milsom injured himself in the warm up and Michael Tidser came in for his debut.

City attacked the end that was reasonably populated by 517 visiting fans for the first half. An early free kick sailed wide and Daniels fired wide from the edge of the area in the third minute against a Rotherham team in all grey.

The lively Ben Pringle fired across Murphy's goal three minutes later before Conor Thomas was booked for a lunge and some of the City fans publicly commented that Mr Evans, who persisted in giving his opinion to the fourth official, was rather large.

In the fourteenth minute, Phillips saw yellow for a foul on Dicko that led to Murphy having to get down to the free kick. 

Pringle looking crisp, fired over Murphy's bar before Callum Wilson broke in the 22nd minute, giving some excitement to the twenty or so on the hill and hit Adam Collin's legs and then tried to pick out Carl Baker from the rebound before the danger was cleared.

Injuries meant that the game reduced in tempo and intensity and half-time and a chance to warm up came as a welcome relief.

Rotherham, who had stopped City playing in the opening forty-five minutes by putting two men in between City's banks of four and six, started the second half with a corner.

A second Millers corner followed in the 53rd minute when a Dicko shot was blocked, but was cleared away.

Four minutes later and a mistake by Daniels saw the ball flicked over for Nouha Dicko to flick past Murphy and give Rotherham the lead in front of their own fans.

Sections of the City support were lambasting the players every time they lost possession, which had been happening a fair bit.

Franck Moussa, now playing up front but achieved little as did Baker, who semed to get plenty of abuse when his passes went astray.

So Steven Pressley, who has shown he is not afraid to bring in his own people with Darren Murray set to take over City's Academy, sent on Cyrus Christie to go on the right side of midfield.

Although Christie was far better than he was against Tranmere, he could little as in the 68th minute, the Millers first doubled their lead through an Alex Ravell header from six yards after an initial Murphy save and in the 72nd minute, Adam Webster left his foot in on Dicko and the purple shirted referee awarded a penalty which Kieran Agard duly converted.

A handful of City supporters walked out in disgust and missed Callum Wilson jinking through and having a shot saved by the legs of Collin, who had been grossly under-worked all evening.

The disgruntled City support continued to head home at regular intervals, leaving Steven Pressley the headache of how to put things right for Saturday's invasion at MK Dons.