A realistic boss, a Chuckle Brother and a first point ... the story of Rotherham United 1 York City 1

The pause was telling.

Alex Bruce had just been asked what he thought of Rotherham United's performance, and he wanted to make sure he gave a considered, accurate answer.

Eventually, he settled for: "I thought we were okay."

And that was, indeed, considered and accurate.

The Millers had just gone toe to toe with an impressive York City team and emerged with something to show for their efforts.

Both are new to League Two. Rotherham because they fell in to it, the Minstermen because they won the National League with around a gazillion points.

York are already very good. The Millers, with 11 new signings starting out on a revival mission, will get better. For now, they're nowhere near what they want and need to be, but they're going in the right direction.

And - in a big difference to much of last season - it looks like they're working for each other.

"The one thing that pleased me about the lads was that they dug in," Bruce said. "I've said in the past, that's a minimum."

The first fourth-tier match of 2026/27 at AESSEAL New York Stadium brought a first point, a deserved point. Saturday's outcome was fair after a match in which the Millers went in front, were pegged back and both sides enjoyed spells on top.

"There were momentum swings," Bruce said. "It went for us, it went for them. We huffed and puffed and you thought: 'Can we nick another one?' There were positives, negatives, stuff that we need to work on.

"You can see that the lads are buying in to what we're doing. We were playing against a team that have worked together for a long time. They're a good side, they ask you questions.

"Their rotations, especially in wide areas between their wing-backs and their '10's, are excellent. Combating that was something we'd worked on for two or three days. They're going to cause a lot of teams problems at this level. I thought we dealt with them well, and we also asked them questions."

The visitors had no answer to a crafty 20th-minute set-piece routine that saw Ewan Otoo neatly tuck away Kian Spence's low corner.

Neither did Rotherham when York upped their game.

Paul Chuckle was watching from the West Stand and must have admired City's slick, 'to me, to you' attacking passing game.

It paid dividends five minutes before the interval when they broke at speed from a corner and Alex Newby deftly touched in Harry Boyes' cross.

'Oh dear, of dear, oh dear,' you could almost hear a certain Millers supporter mutter.

"Our goal was something we've worked on," Bruce said. "It's always nice to score from a set-play. With the size of us and the players that we've got, if we get the delivery right, we'll be dangerous. It was pleasing to see.

"I wasn't so pleased to see the goal that we gave away, the way we got counter-attacked. That's something we need to work on. It was a well-worked goal by them - a good transition - but disappointing from our point of view."

Also in the visitors' first-half purple patch, Ollie Pearce headed wastefully over, Ted Cann saved from Newby and Lenny Agbaire stretched out a long leg to wonderfully block Pearce's goalbound shot.

York’s dominance continued into the second half, but Rotherham, with all three centre-halves standing up, held firm.

Jamie Jellis, out with a short-term calf issue, was a big miss in midfield where, for York, Joe Grey and Alex Hunt never stopped buzzing forward and Ollie Banks was always there to back them up.

"We're a work in progress," said Bruce. "I'm sure the supporters can see that themselves. Some of the lads haven't had a pre-season, so it's tough when they're thrown straight into competitive matches, but I felt as if they dealt with it very, very well."

Amid the cramp, the fatigue and the forced substitutions, the Millers, to their credit, found the energy to force their way back into the contest.

Cann had to save sharply to deny Pearce as the match hung in the balance, but Jili Buyabu was making light-footed inroads for Rotherham down the left flank and Bruce's men wrested back a degree of dominance.

Tom Bradshaw was foiled by a Alfie McNally stop, Spence's fierce follow-up was deflected for a corner and it was the Millers pushing hardest for winner as the clock ticked down until Jeff King wasted a glorious opportunity for the visitors by lofting the ball over the bar with virtually the last kick.

Maybe it was karma. York, for all their poise in possession, had been narky and niggly, their edges hardened in the tough, bump-and-bash battleground outside the EFL.

The man who missed that last-gasp chance had thrown an off-the-ball punch at Buyabu while Morgan Williams - excellent at the back, by the way - had spent the afternoon making the most of a weak referee who blew for minor things and let major infringements go.

It was Bruce's first home league fixture as a boss. He was applauded before kick-off, as were his squad after the final whistle.

"Yeah, I enjoyed it," he said. "I want to give the fans something to shout about and, hopefully, they can see small changes. I think, on the whole, it was probably a good game to watch if you were neutral. It swayed each way. You didn't quite know which way it was going to go. We hung on in there."

Rotherham are still hampered by the effects of late appointments of staff and the late arrival of players. They'll have to play catch-up for a while.

Minutes after the match, Bruce was already looking forward to another week on the training ground - a chance to further lift fitness levels and continue to raise standards.

For now, his sober assessment of the display also holds true about the club's rate of progress.

And, at this very early stage of a rebuild, 'okay' is okay.