The boos, the malaise and Matt Hamshaw's hints ... the story of Rotherham United 0 Peterborough United 2

Jordan Hugill knew the importance of the New Year's Day chance he'd just spurned not long after the break.

Had the ball gone, Rotherham United would have been in front in a League One game for the first time since November 22 and maybe, just maybe, their run of defeats would be coming to an end.

Instead, the striker's effort bounced off the bar, the game remained locked at 0-0 and visitors Peterborough United would go on to rub New Year's Day salt into the Millers' wounds.

It's a tough old time for manager Matt Hamshaw, it's a tough old time for us all. There were boos at the final whistle from some of the small number of supporters who'd stuck it out until the end.

“Look, little moments can decide games,” the boss said. “Second half, we had a little bit of a go - arguably, we should have scored with Jordan's shot.

“If that goes in, confidence comes back a little bit. It doesn't go in ... I can feel it in the stadium, I can feel it with the players.

“And then, I'll be honest, I thought that in the last 25 minutes we just collapsed as a group. That isn't acceptable.”

The group he was talking about was - as ever - hit hard by missing men. Two more players had reported lame before the match, two others wouldn't see the end of it as they limped towards the treatment room.

Nine months into his rebuilding project, Hamshaw found himself fielding questions about his job in the wake of a sixth consecutive loss that kept his side in the drop zone and saw that nine-match unbeaten run of October and November slip further into the shadows.

“Yeah, 100 per cent I back myself to get it going again,” he said. ”Listen, I'll keep standing here, I'll keep fighting, I'll keep giving my best.

“I appreciate that the majority of fans will probably want me out now. I understand football. I feel like I've probably not been judged on the things that I want to do.

“My best team, I've not had that out. People will just say it's excuses. It's facts.

“We worked hard to bring players in in the summer to fit the new remit. I felt like we did that. Some of those players have been injured. We've then relied on players who couldn't get in my team towards the back end of last season.”

Table-climbing Posh arrived with a record the polar opposite of the Millers' and with pacy, purposeful wide men in Declan Frith and Kyrell Lisbie, but were no better than Rotherham in the first half.

Hugill, playing with a broken nose, tried to put the on-rushing Denzel Hall in the clear but his wayward pass didn't give his teammate a sniff, before some Hall magic set up Kion Etete whose attempt was spectacular yet should have made goalkeeper Alex Bass's life harder than it did.

At the other end, Joe Powell cleared a Lisbie flick off the line and Cameron Dawson dived full length to foil Frith.

Soon after the restart, following a Dru Yearwood curler well saved by Bass and a Donay O'Brien-Brady shot that whacked the frame of Dawson's net, came Hugill's moment.

Picked out by Shaun McWilliams' pinpoint flighted pass, he did well to fashion himself some shooting room but then erred at the vital moment when his second goal in his last 36 league outings seemed certain.

Later, he was announced as Man of the Match, which suggested that the wine being consumed by the sponsors in New York's corporate section had a better kick than he did.

As usual, the casualty count was part of the conversation. So, too, were Hamshaw's references to what he inherited at the end of the March.

He'd love to go public, I'm sure, but can only drop dark hints at the difficulties of his task behind the scenes.

“The club was struggling when I took over,” he said. “People might say it's worse now than it was then. They're entitled to their opinion, but we're trying to move forward, we're trying to stay together.

“It's really hard for me to come out here and say to you: ‘Look, things are rosy in the garden, we'll get better and we've got him, him and him back.’

“Those players aren't back soon. So it's now down to the group in the dressing room to stand up and puff their chests out. That's the thing that disappoints me the most today - I don't think they did that.”

The Millers fell behind just after the hour mark when Ar'Jany Martha gave Frith the freedom of the pitch and Dawson could only direct a low cross against Joe Rafferty who ended up in the back of the net along with the ball.

Matters grew even worse 12 minutes later when Brandon Khela, having just entered the fray, made the most of the time and space he was afforded to locate the bottom corner.

Defensively, Rotherham had been poor, and, up front, their options were nowhere near third-tier standard in that final 25 minutes.

Hamshaw, cut a lonely figure in his technical area, his hands buried deep in his coat pockets, as if he was searching for a forgotten tenner to add to a hoped-for January transfer kitty on which the campaign may hinge.

Those boos rang out. Maybe they were aimed at him, maybe they were aimed at the players, maybe they were aimed at people higher up. Maybe they were just aimed frustratedly in general at the malaise the club finds itself in.

It was the boss's 44th birthday as well. On another day that brought no happy returns.

Rotherham (3-1-4-2): Cameron Dawson; Joe Rafferty (Liam Kelly 66), Zak Jules, Jamal Baptiste; Dru Yearwood (Jack Holmes 66); Denzel Hall (Sean Raggett 79), Shaun McWilliams, Joe Powell, Reece James (Ar'Jany Martha H-T); Jordan Hugill, Kion Etete (Josh Ayres 53). Subs not used: Ted Cann, Lenny Agbaire.

Peterborough (4-1-4-1): Alex Bass; Peter Kioso (James Dornelly 84), Tom Lees, Tom O'Connor, Carl Johnston; Archie Collins; Declan Frith, Matthew Garbett (Ben Woods 77), Donay O'Brien-Brady (Brandon Khela 71), Kyrell Lisbie (Cian Hayes 77); Gustav Lindgren (Harry Leonard 71). Subs not used: Vicente Reyes, George Nevett.

Goals: Rafferty og 61, Khela 73) (Peterborough)

Referee: Matthew Corlett (Merseyside)

Attendance: 8,429 (1,007)