Birmingham City vs Rotherham United. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance17,307.
Sunday 27 September 2015 15:13, UK
Rotherham striker Matt Derbyshire returned to haunt old club Birmingham as he spearheaded a surprise 2-0 away Championship win.
Derbyshire was on the mark in the first half and the victory was sealed in the second period when Tony Andreu, on loan from Norwich, hammered in a fine goal to give the Millers their second successive win to take them off the bottom of the table.
Birmingham suffered their third defeat in four games and rarely threatened to claw their way back into the game.
Rotherham's defence, which has been under siege this season, discovered some steel on this occasion to put up a barrier which Birmingham could not penetrate.
Rotherham made it obvious that they were keen to build on their morale-boosting first win of the season against Cardiff and were well worth their second win on the spin.
They began on a promising note but at that stage neither Derbyshire or Jonson Clarke-Harrison appeared to have the firepower to break through Birmingham's rearguard.
As a result, Birmingham were able to mount numerous attacks. On-loan Jon Toral was first to test Lee Camp, while Demarai Gray made a couple of penetrative runs but on each occasion he overran the ball.
Birmingham's eagerness to dominate Rotherham enabled the opposition to pose some serious danger on the counter.
Twice in quick succession Tomasz Kuszczak had to make smart saves from Clarke-Harris and Joe Newell.
Birmingham did not heed the warning and found themselves a goal down in the 32nd minute in the most lacklustre circumstances.
Maikel Kieftenbeld lost possession to Newell and his innocuous cross found the unmarked Derbyshire who scored with a raking low shot past Kuszczak.
Six minutes before the break Birmingham should have equalised. David Cotterill's low cross from the left found the unmarked Gray who side-footed over.
This miss only appeared to highlight the frustration which had crept into Birmingham's play due to their inability to overcome a battling Rotherham side.
Stephen Gleeson was not very happy as he became in a heated argument with Derbyshire as they left the field at half-time.
There was, however, no doubt that Derbyshire's first-half strike undoubtedly gave Rotherham fresh confidence after their disappointing start to the season.
As to be expected Rotherham's defence took a second-half pounding as Birmingham strived for the equaliser.
In an attempt to inject more flair Birmingham made a double substitution sending on Andrew Shinnie and Jacques Maghoma but it was no avail as within three minutes Rotherham increased their lead in the 65th minute.
Gleeson lost possession on the edge of the penalty area and the ball ran loose to Andreu and the on-loan player from Norwich scored with a low angled shot past Kuszczak to the delight of the 878 travelling fans.
Birmingham manager Gary Rowett:
"I thought we were flat after one or two minutes. You could see that we didn't get our defensive shape or move up the pitch quickly enough. When you see us playing really well we break with some real pace and power. We stopped doing that against Rotherham. We are in a run of having to play seven games in a 21-day spell but we cannot use that as an excuse.
Rotherham manager Steve Evans:
"We set the tone in the first minute and it was all about us. We controlled the game from start to finish. We made a bad start to the season with a 4-1 opening day defeat to MK Dons. We now have our best players back and this has been shown in our last two games."
