Millers second best to Villa

ROTHERHAM United got a reminder of the difficulty of the Championship as they slipped to a comprehensive defeat at Aston Villa in their first away game of the new campaign.

Two first-half strikes from Rudy Gestede and a late Jack Grealish goal completed a 3-0 loss with which Alan Stubbs’ side could have few complaints.

Fielding new signing Dominic Ball in defence, the Millers saw lots of the ball in the first half without every really testing Pierluigi Gollini in the home goal and it was Villa’s extra quality in the final third which proved decisive in front of a crowd of more than 33,000.

Gestede ended a flowing move with a header to open the scoring on 21 minutes and made it 2-0 with a lofted finish over Lee Camp just before the half-time whistle. Jake Forster-Caskey had Rotherham’s best chance just moments before with a drive that came off the keeper.

Villa dominated the second half as the Millers struggled to make headway. Gestede missed a great chance to complete his hat-trick from six yards and Jordan Ayew twice tested Camp before Jack Grealish wriggled through on 84 minutes to round Camp and complete a sobering day.

Villa: Gollini, Elphick, Bacuna, Tshibola, Ayew (Adama 74), Chester, Westwood, Cissokho, Grealish (Green 90), Gestede, McCormack (Gardner 85)

Millers: Camp, Kelly, Mattock (Fisher 70), Ball, Wood, Smallwood, Vaulks, Forster-Caskey (Yates 60), Forde, Ward, Taylor

Referee: Keith Stroud

Attendance: 33,286