MATCHDAY CENTRE: Unlucky defeat adds to Millers' woes

Back in the Championship's bottom three, beaten by a potential relegation rival for the second week running and, yet again, failing to hold onto a lead, the Millers are sliding towards another winter of struggle.

It's still only September, not even a quarter into the season, and there are plenty of managers up and down the country grappling with problems.

Alan Stubbs' task of bedding in so manyt new players and putting out a best 11 to get points in such an unforgiving league is as big a challenge as any, but the defensive frailties repeating themselves week after week means Rotherham just aren't giving themselves a chance.

Some of the 22 league goals conceded have been down to individual errors, some to allowing the opposition too much time and space. To be fair, those two bug bears were kept to a minimum against Cardiff on Saturday. It was a lapse in concentration and an unlucky deflection that did for them and undid an hour of good work.

Cardiff arrived on the back of four straight defeats and played like it, operating in stroll mode for large parts.

It took them more than half-an-hour to plant their first serious shot on goal, by which time Rotherham, with skipper Lee Frecklington back in tandem, had grabbed the initiative and stitched together some good stuff. They were the hungrier and more determined.

Danny Ward (twice) and Dael Fry demanded good saves from Ben Amos and justice was done 15 minutes into the second half when Chelsea loan man Izzy Brown collected Fry's directed header to tuck away the first goal.

If Kelvin Wilson got more purchase on a close-range header soon after it could all have turned out differently. But could it? Such is the way with the Millers these days, they need to score at least two to stand a chance of taking something.

Young Fry, still only 18, had done a good marshalling job on the wily old Rickie Lambert until he got the better of him to nod in the 73rd minute equaliser. The customary nervousness returned but Lambert, the 34-year-old former England man, will never have scored a luckier one than his second, squirming one in on the turn thanks to a wicked deflection off Darnell Fisher.

Millers fans at last got a glimpse of new signing Dexter Blackstock and he nearly scored with his first touch before the final whistle was greeted with a hail of boos.

With Huddersfield, Newcastle, Norwich and Birmingham to come, it's not going to get any easier.