Millwall 3-0 Rotherham: Lions cruise to victory at The Den

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Millwall and Rotherham at The Den as Ryan Longman, Zian Flemming and Tom Bradshaw scored in victory for the Lions on Wednesday night.

Wednesday 20 September 2023 23:20, UK

Zian Flemming put on a stellar performance as Millwall cruised to a 3-0 victory over Rotherham at The Den.

Ryan Longman opened Millwall's account in the 27th minute when he cut inside and fired a wonder strike from 25 yards.

Flemming, who was left out of The Lions' starting line-up in their 3-0 defeat to Leeds on Sunday, returned and doubled his side's tally in the 58th minute.

Millwall finished off a convincing display with a Tom Bradshaw goal as he pounced on a deflected long-range strike to make it 3-0 in second-half stoppage time.

The home side started as they meant to go on thanks to an encouraging opening from Flemming.

Brooke Norton-Cuffy whipped in a dangerous ball into the box in the 15th minute, but it could only find former Millwall man Fred Onyedinma as Viktor Johansson remained untested.

Bradshaw had a promising chance in the 26th minute when the ball fell to him outside the box, but the forward struck high and wide.

Millwall found the breakthrough just a minute later as Allan Campbell found fellow loanee Longman in space on the edge of the box, who cut inside and fired a stunning strike past Johansson into the top right corner.

Rotherham struggled to string any real passes together, but managed half a chance when Sam Clucas found Onyedinma in the box, only to head wide.

Casper De Norre fired a bullet effort from 30 yards past a number of Rotherham bodies in the 40th minute, but Johannson was on hand to prevent the advantage from doubling.

Rotherham looked to grab an early equaliser after the break, with Onyedinma proving a threat once again when he curled the ball past Bartosz Białkowski in the 49th minute, but the flag immediately went up for offside.

Millwall's hopes of adding a second looked to have been hit by the loss of Kevin Nisbet to injury, but that did not stop Flemming from doubling their lead in the 58th minute with a punishing left-footed strike from inside the box.

The hosts continued to push for another goal to ensure a third win of the season as Norton-Cuffy had a strong right-footed effort saved from a tight angle with 10 minutes to go.

Bradshaw, who scored twice in this fixture last season, made it 3-0 in the third minute of stoppage time when the ball fell to him in the penalty area following a deflected long-range effort.

The managers

Millwall's Gary Rowett:

"We responded but we responded in a way that I just didn't think we allowed Rotherham to create anything or really put us under pressure and that's probably the bit that I liked the most about the performance.

"It's never easy at the weekend when you play a game and you lose 3-0 in the game that I didn't think we deserved to lose 3-0 in.

"But you've got to still come out and fight and then show a little bit of spirit and that's what today was.

"We passed the ball, we were quite patient, we still look to go in behind and attack quickly.

"We kept it at the right times and I think that made it very difficult for Rotherham to build anything against us.

"Casper (De Norre) was excellent in that respect, he just kept receiving the ball, kept getting into intelligent positions and I thought he was outstanding tonight.

"For Zian and Brad [Tom Bradshaw], it's nice for them to get on the scoresheet. Both of them were excellent for different reasons and in different ways."

Rotherham's Matt Taylor:

"We weren't where we needed to be to stand up to Millwall's style. It was similar to the weekend really where we're second best too often I'm afraid.

"We've got a problem with physicality; I have to start with my backline in relation to that.

"We're looking for solutions, we didn't quite have the glue to stick certain units together.

"I was actually quite pleased to get in at half-time at 1-0, despite a really good strike to go behind to.

"We tried to change a few things and in the second half, we started the brighter but that second goal is unfortunately where we are at the moment, it kind of came out of nothing, not an outstanding attack.

"We can give credit to the opposition, but we're just too easy to play through and to score against."