Stoke City 4 Rotherham United 1 ... full player ratings and match stats

The Millers (3-5-2)

Viktor Johansson: 7

None of the goals were his fault and he made a couple of excellent saves.

Cameron Humphreys: 6

Not a day when any defender shone but he got in his share of tackles and blocks.

Sean Morrison: 4

Nothing wrong with his physicality but he looked off the pace and struggled against Stoke's nimble forwards. Still building up his sharpness after a long injury. Won't have enjoyed being taken off at the break but it was the right call.

Tyler Blackett: 5

Okay. No more than that. Didn't shy away from anything.

Fred Onyedinma: 6

One or two decent signs from the debutant after the break following a quiet first half.

Ollie Rathbone: 6

Battled, scurried and harried against a strong Stoke midfield but this was a rare day when he came off second best.

Cafu: 6

Another debut-maker. Moments of class without the overall impact of his pre-season performances. The player who looked most like he could make something happen . Didn't deserve the second caution.

Hakeem Odoffin: 5

Never really got himself involved, and his game is all about him getting involved. Tried hard but was a peripheral figure.

Cohen Bramall: 5

Looked better in a back four after the interval than he had as a first-half wing-back. Nothing impressive but nothing disastrous either.

Ben Wiles: 6

It hasn't clicked yet for the attacking midfielder after his ankle surgery but he's starting to get there. Saw more of the ball than most of his teammates.

Jordan Hugill: 4

Wasn't helped by Rotherham's lack of possession and never troubled the home defence.

The subs

Lee Peltier (for Morrison, H-T): NA

Looked solid for the short amount of time he was on the pitch and scored only the second goal of his Millers career.

Dexter Lembikisa (for Peltier 58): 6

Tried to be direct on his debut and did his best to attack down the right flank.

Georgie Kelly (for Hugill 63): 5

Battled hard but for little reward.

Josh Kayode (for Onyedinma 79): NA

Good to see him in a first-team shirt again and playing in the Championship for the first time. No chance to impress.

Jamie McCart (for Rathbone 79): NA

Competed well. Always give his all.

Not used: Dillon Phillips, Tolaji Bola, Ciaran McGuckin, Josh Ayres.

Stoke (4-3-3): Mark Travers 6; Ki-Jana Hoever 8, Michael Rose 8, Ben Wilmot 7, Enda Stevens 7; Josh Laurent 8, Ben Pearson 6 (Jordan Thompson 79), Daniel Johnson 8 (Sol Sidibe,90); Jacob Brown 7, Ryan Mmaee 8 (Chiquinho 75), Andre Vidigal 8 (Wesley 90). Subs not used: Jack Bonham, Josh Tymon, Luke McNally, David Okagbue, Nathan Lowe.

Goals: Hoever 5, Vidigal 45+2, 45+7, Brown 90 (Stoke); Peltier 46 (Rotherham).

Attendance: 22,601 (1,672).

Referee: John Busby (Oxfordshire).

Opposition view

"Obviously there's been a lot of talk. We've done a lot in the window. I think that it's easy to talk about change and resets and all that sort of stuff but ultimately the proof is in the pudding when you go on the pitch.

"So what we didn't want to do after all that is then let ourselves down and let everybody else down. I thought it was vitally important that we played well today. We won and we won convincingly.

"We’ve scored four goals and could have scored more because we had a lot of chances. To have six debutants and to bring three others on, it really is remarkable for some of the lads in terms of what they've done.

"Some of the boys have been in less than a week and two or three of them started, playing against a team that we found really, really difficult to beat last year. I thought we won convincingly."

- Stoke boss Alex Neil

The stats

Possession: Stoke 71 per cent, Millers 29

Goal attempts: Stoke 15, Millers 6

On target: Stoke 6, Millers 3

Corners: Stoke 10, Millers 2

Fouls: Stoke 12, Millers 10

Final word

"They were good, we weren't." Matt Taylor, not me.