Rotherham 1-2 Preston: North End battle past the Millers for victory

Preston kept their slim Sky Bet Championship play-off hopes alive with a 2-1 win at Rotherham, who are still looking over their shoulder at the relegation zone.

First-half goals from Tom Cannon and Ched Evans saw North End stretch their unbeaten run to seven games and move to five points off the top six.

With nine games to go and plenty of teams above them with an extra game to play it looks an outside bet that they qualify, but they still have something to play for.

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The Millers, who equalised through Hakeem Odoffin, saw their cushion above the drop zone cut to five points after Blackpool beat QPR 6-1 and Saturday's clash with Cardiff now looks to have taken on extra significance.

Things might have been different had Rotherham's strong start, with Chiedozie Ogbene causing trouble down the right, been rewarded with a goal.

But they could not muster anything meaningful on the Preston goal and it was the visitors who took the lead against the run of play midway through the first half.

After Tarique Fosu miscontrolled in his own half, Alan Browne sent a curling cross to the far post where Robbie Brady headed back across goal for Cannon to poke home from close range.

Rotherham's response was good and they should have been level three minutes later but an unmarked Jordan Hugill, playing against his former club, put a free header from Wes Harding's cross well over.

The hosts continued to push and a deserved equaliser came 10 minutes before time.

Shane Ferguson sent in a wicked corner to the near post where Odoffin ghosted off his marker and flashed a powerful header into the roof of the net.

But Preston regained the lead in first-half injury time when Evans produced a sublime turn and shot, which arrowed into the bottom corner for his ninth goal in 12 league games.

That proved the perfect tonic for the visitors and they came out firing in the second half, creating enough chances to have the game wrapped up by the hour-mark.

Cannon saw a chipped effort glance off the crossbar after he held off a challenge from Cameron Humphreys before Ched Evans' goalbound shot was blocked by Odoffin, with Bambo Diaby blazing a good chance over from the resulting corner.

Rotherham tried to get themselves back in the game but failed to get anywhere near an equaliser, with Odoffin's 35th-minute equaliser their only shot on target in the whole match.

The managers

Rotherham's Matt Taylor:

"The only thing I can control is the way the players feel and approach the game and with a day's turnaround from Saturday maybe I should have sensed something with the personnel. We are searching for different ways to get a little bit more happiness in their own bodies before Saturday.

"I am always honest, maybe too honest at times in terms of how I talk. I thought a few were a little bit flat tonight in terms of being scolded from the weekend, were a little bit low on the back of their performance or how the game panned out at the weekend. We just weren't there with the intent to start the game. The goals are a frustrating aspect and shows a little bit of weakness through the spine of the team. We were overrun in certain parts. It comes down to quality and execution, something we have been short in for too long I am afraid."

Preston's Ryan Lowe:

"The focus is the next game, we have got a small points target from now until the Middlesbrough game, we are going about it in a nice way. I'm not going to get too carried away as much as I would love to," he said. This league is crazy, Blackpool won 6-1 tonight, so that's what the league is.

"I am not going to get too carried away, we are going to try and keep climbing up as much as we can and collecting points and if we feel like we have got any chance after that we will sit down and have a discussion amongst ourselves and see where it takes us. We just want to keep working hard and picking up points and see where it takes us."

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