MATCHDAY CENTRE: Harsh lessons for the Millers

The first priority for Alan Stubbs or any manager is to put a side that is competitive and resilient and can give itself a chance of winning matches.

The squad is still taking shape, more new faces will arrive before the month is up and the players are going to take time to adjust to new methods and tactics. But as even the once mighty Newcastle United are finding out at the moment, the Championship is an unforgiving league.

It's a dog fight from top to bottom and any brittleness, the sort the Millers are showing at the moment, is soon exposed.

At Villa Park on Saturday they closed some of the gaping gaps that led to the embarrassing cup defeat to Morecambe in midweek but not nearly enough of them.

Rotherham knocked it around well at times in the first half and not for the first time this season they had more of the ball than the opposition.

The telling factor was Aston Villa's superior skills and know-how in the final third, typified by the trickery of wide man Jack Grealish, the physicality of two-goal Rudy Gestede and cunning of £12 million man Ross McCormack.

The Millers' pedestrian attacks produced just one shot on target, from Jake Forster-Caskey late in the first half, underlining the fact that while the need for a mean streak in defensive positions has to be the platform for collecting league points, they desperately need more fire power.

Rotherham's timing wasn't great in meeting a Villa side stung by two early defeats and with a point to prove to a rowdy and expectant crowd of more than 33,000 who turned out to watch the club's first match outside the top flight in nearly 30 years.

And with their new Chinese owner Tony Xia coming onto the pitch before kick off to milk the applause, there was a celebratory mood around the place.

Lee Camp's flying early save from Aly Cissokho kept Villa at bay until Gestede, the former Blackburn man, outdid Richard Wood to head the opener 21 minutes, the move stemming from a mix-up between Forster-Caskey and Jon Taylor in the opposition half.

While there was nothing between the sides for long periods in the first half, when the hosts got on the ball they attacked with width and purpose and Gestede's dinked second goal from McCormack's slide-rule pass as good as sealed their first league win since February.

Skippered by Stephen Kelly in the absence of Kirk Broadfoot, with new boy Dominic Ball filling the Scot's boots at centre-half, Rotherham never looked like pulling it back and too many of their creative players were ineffective, leaving striker Danny Ward with little service.

Villa's dominance warranted a couple more goals and Gestede, a menace throughout, passed up the chance to complete his hat-trick before the gloss was put on the result six minutes from time. The yellow wall parted one final time and Grealish was allowed a clear run to round Camp and score.

The Millers need to find a mean streak in time for tomorrow's toughie at Brighton.

Keep up to date with all the reaction from Saturday's 3-0 defeat on the Advertiser's Matchday Centre throughout Monday morning.