Alton Towers, keeper questions and now for the big one ... Rotherham United 1 West Bromwich Albion 4

Alex Bruce had taken a family trip to Alton Towers on his midweek day off during the build-up to the opening match of 2026/27.

Then he had to watch a very, very good side give his team a bout of white-knuckle treatment as Rotherham United bade a first-round farewell to the Carabao Cup.

The Millers weren't very, very bad, it's just that the visitors were very, very good.

Championship West Bromwich Albion may well be challenging for a place in the Premier League next season.

Bruce's men are only a matter of days away from the start of their own campaign in League Two. It's a new team for a new season and, hopefully, a new era. Seven players were making their debuts and three more signings were on the bench. Some of the faces are so fresh that they're barely on first-name terms with each other yet.

"There's work to do," said the head coach soon after Saturday's final whistle. "Thankfully, we're not going to come up against that level of opposition every week. We are where we are.

"There were some positives to take.  Ultimately, we conceded goals at bad times. I'm disappointed that we've lost - I always will be when we lose - but sometimes you just have to keep calm a little bit because the reality is, we have some players who have done only three days of pre-season. They've been thrown in straight away to play games. Some of the players had never played together before. At times, that showed."

Continuing on the Alton Towers theme, the Millers had their own nemesis - a young, rangy runner with blond hair from whom the Baggies paid Chelsea £4 million.

Twenty-year-old Jimmy-Jay Morgan bagged the first and fourth goals and generally ran the show at AESSEAL New York Stadium until he was taken off to be saved for greater tests.

In the first half, Rotherham defended, defended again, then defended some more.

They'd fallen behind in the eighth minute when Harry Whitwell fed Morgan who beat Ted Cann too easily and set the tone for an afternoon the shot-stopper wasn't going to enjoy.

Before the half-hour mark, the goalkeeper spilled a Morgan effort he might have held and Whitwell went from provider to scorer as he tucked away with the rebound.

The Millers were seeing little of the ball and Albion boss James Morrison was being truthful, not mocking, when he said: "No disrespect, but Rotherham struggled to get near us at times."

Bruce didn't disagree: I think a lot of that had to do with the formation and the shape of West Brom, the way they played with the two wide 10s and the two 6s at times.

"We were a little bit too honest, especially in the middle of the pitch, with defenders jumping out and trying to press the opposition. They were just getting picked off with the ball and the spaces opened up behind them. Those kind of tactical things can be worked on and that's exactly what we'll be doing."

Just before the break, the home side stirred and one of those 10 new boys, Mullin headed wide while Emmanuel Adegboyega might well have reduced the arrears had the accuracy of his off-target thump come anywhere near to matching its power.

That wily old fox in the box, Mullin, was suddenly popping up in all the right places, first getting on the end of Fabio Tavares' cross soon after the restart and being denied by Nat Phillips' superb block, then applying another first-time boot to Jamie Jellis' supply only to see Max O'Leary demonstrate exemplary sharpness.

"Their goalkeeper made a great save," said Bruce. "It would have been interesting had that gone in. West Brom went straight up the other end of the pitch, scored and killed the game."

Indeed they did. Cann's parry landed at the feet of substitute Felix Horn Myhre who made no mistake, and within a matter of minutes that man, Morgan, arrived at the back post to bury Callum Styles' cross with a header.

Bruce had been looping the loop on the roller coasters at the theme park, now the keeper was scooping the scoop, lifting the ball out of the back too many times for any Miller's liking. He might have done better with all of the goals except the third.

Rotherham stayed honest; outgunned, outclassed, but going as hard as they could right to the end. They were already four adrift when Jellis, arguably the find of the summer, put in a body-on-the-line block that showed attitude to match the aptitude.

The Millers finished with a little flurry of pressure and were rewarded with a late consolation strike. Jimmy-Jay himself would have been pleased with the on-a-sixpence turn and clinical shot into the roof of the net by Tavares.

"Work rate is always going to be a given," Bruce said. "The chances we created in the latter stages of the game was one of the things that pleased me. The players didn't chuck the towel.

"There was a bit of a gulf in quality, there was a little bit of a gulf in terms of fitness levels with where the West Brom lads are at the moment. However, I'm going to keep a level head . Our big game next week is the one that I'm focusing on."

He reflected on just how strong Albion had been. "It was a tough afternoon wasn't it?" he said soberly. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it."

Still, in the context of the season as a whole, it was a contest hardly more meaningful than a pre-season friendly, and the real stuff begins at Cheltenham Town on August 15's League Two opening day.

"I think most people with a bit of an intelligence appreciate where we're at with the amount of players we've had to bring in to the group," the head coach said. "I'm not going to be overly critical or lose much sleep about today, My focus is on getting the positives out of it and making sure they're ready to go next week."

A result then and Bruce will be just like one of the big rides at Alton Towers: The Smiler.

Rotherham (4-3-3): Ted Cann; Denzel Hall (Joe Rafferty 77), Emmanuel Adegboyega, Sonny Aljofree, Ewan Otoo; Kian Spence, Ossama Ashley (Brandon Cover 56), Jamie Jellis; Fabio Tavares, Paul Mullin (Ar'Jany Martha 62), Jili Buyabu (Aaron Nemane 77). Subs not used: Ben Childs, Lenny Agbaire, Kieran Ngwenya, Marvin Kaleta, Tom Bradshaw.

West Brom (4-2-3-1): Max O'Leary; Nolan Galves, Nat Phillips, George Campbell, Callum Styles (Conor Townsend 72); Ousmane Diakite, Alex Mowatt (Jayson Molumby 72); Harry Whitwell (Felix Horn Myhre H-T), Jimmy-Jay Morgan (Mikey Johnston 65), Isaac Price; Aune Heggebo (Barney Stewart 72). Subs not used: Matt Ingram, Chris Mepham, Krystian Bielik, Alex Williams.

Goals: Tavares 87 (Rotherham); Morgan 8, 61, Whitwell 24, Myhre 55 (West Brom)

Referee: Tom Reeves (West Midlands)

Attendance: 4,850 (2,495)