Penalties, pledges and pessimism ... the story of Rotherham United 0 Barnsley 1

This was meant to be a day of derby redemption, a match in which Rotherham United righted the wrongs of their November nadir against South Yorkshire rivals Barnsley.

Save for brief flurries just before and after the break, the Millers never threatened to take their revenge.

It wasn't quite the supine surrender of the points that Oakwell had witnessed, but it wasn't far off.

Summer pledges of a play-off push have given way to a late-winter change of tack to planning for a second season in League One.

“They were better than us all over the pitch,” conceded Steve Evans, the manager whose April re-arrival and fighting talk inspired so much optimism. “They played with more purpose than us, more desire, more of what you need in a derby.”

Rotherham's fans have had enough of this campaign, many of them have had enough of the boss and the team he has failed to build.

Plenty of them had had enough on Saturday, and so the gleeful scoffing from opposition supporters echoed around a disenchanted stadium as the game edged into ten minutes of added time.

‘Cheerio, cheerio.’

The first half was everything a derby shouldn't be: two teams not going at it, two teams with spirit-sapping recent sequences of results caught in their own fear.

Both kicked off with one win in their last seven outings. By the end of a contest that didn't grip the heart or fever the imagination, the Millers' figure had risen to eight.

“We spoke long and hard to the boys during the week about making up for a bad night at Oakwell but we've carried that type of performance on to today,” Evans said.

The boss was subdued by his standards in his after-match media duties and even four penalty incidents didn't unduly stir him.

He hasn't come back for 14th spot yet 14th seems to have been where the Millers have been forever this term.

“We tried to go on the front and take the game to them,” he went on. “They've been on a similar run of form to us. We knew there would be nervous players in both boxes defensively.

“We didn't do enough when we got into good areas. Barnsley showed good, mature defending at times when we had half a sniff.”

The visitors should have had a penalty early on when Reece James' panicked attempt to atone for a poor first touch saw him bring down Adam Phillips, Rotherham might have had one towards half-time when Sam Nombe's grapple with Corey O’Keefe ended with the attacker on the ground.

Referee Ollie Yates correctly pointed to the spot in the 52nd minute when James didn't give enough consideration to the lurking Davis Keillor-Dunn and a weak header back to Dillon Phillips saw the Barnsley man nip in to be felled by the goalkeeper.

Barnsley Phillips sent Rotherham Phillips the wrong way and there was no way back for the home side whose only true effort on target had been a curling Mallik Wilks effort tipped for a corner by Joe Gauci just before the game's only goal.

Yates incorrectly didn't point to the spot later in the half when Zak Jules' handball was so pronounced as he tried to shepherd the ball back to his keeper that he might as well have picked it up and given it to him.

Evans delivered his verdict on the spot-kicks, saying all of the first three should have been given. He couldn't bring himself to go for a full house and left the last one as a possible.

The manager harked back to penalty injustices suffered by the Millers previously this month and he had a point, yet that kind of talk felt as tired as the display he said his team had just delivered.

“We started the second half really well so it's a travesty that that's when they get their penalty,” he added. “We had them hemmed in a bit at the time.”

From the 76th minute onwards, following an injury to Gauci, Barnsley had a rookie 23-year-old substitute keeper making their first appearance for them but not once was he put under serious pressure.

“Yeah, for sure, 100 per cent," said Evans when asked if the Millers could have, and should have, done more to make Jackson Smith's debut somewhat harder than it turned out to be.

“They killed the game a bit with how long they took to take the first lad off. That killed any momentum we had. But, listen, we've been beaten and we'll accept we were second best."

In the closing stages, as the visiting defence put heads and boots on everything, Smith remained unworked and it was the keeper at the other end who was called into action to keep out a stinging shot from his Tykes namesake.

“There were too many poor performances,” Evans said. “How many people have done their jobs from a Rotherham perspective? Very few.

“It wasn't a classic. I don’t remember Dillon really making a save but I don't remember either Barnsley keeper really making a save either.

“I think if a goal was going to come it was going to come from the penalty spot.”

Defeat stretched Rotherham's winless record against the Tykes to 43 years and 13 games.

Something had stirred for the Millers in January but it has fallen away in a February of four defeats, no victories and a draw.

Now Evans is back under the kind of pressure he admits himself he was lucky to survive in the two months leading up to the turn of the year.

Those remaining in the stadium at the final whistle were angrily vocal as they delivered a damning verdict and the boos were tellingly the loudest of the campaign.

All Rotherham have left to play for in the remaining 14 games is making sure a flirtation with the drop zone doesn't creep up on them.

Fifteen points from the top six, six from the bottom four.

Fans have bid their farewells to hopes of the end of the season turning out to be any less disappointing than the start.

Cheerio, cheerio.

Rotherham (4-3-1-2): Dillon Phillips; Joe Rafferty, Hakeem Odoffin, Zak Jules, Reece James; Pelly Mpanzu, Louie Sibley (Jonson Clarke-Harris 63), Joe Powell (Josh Kayode 86); Mallik Wilks; Jordan Hugill (Andre Green H-T), Sam Nombe. Subs not used: Cameron Dawson, Shaun McWilliams, Jack Holmes, Ben Hatton.

Barnsley (3-5-2): Joe Gauci (Jackson Smith 76); Mael de Gevigney, Marc Roberts, Josh Earl; Corey O'Keefe, Luca Connell, Jon Russell, Adam Phillips (Josh Benson 87), Neil Farrugia (Dexter Lembikisa 63); Davis Keillor-Dunn, Stephen Humphrys (Clement Rodrigues 63). Subs not used: Jonathan Lewis, Conor McCarthy, Kelechi Nwakali.

Goals: Phillips pen 52 (Barnsley)

Referee: Ollie Yates (Staffordshire)

Attendance: 10,755 (2,207)