Gillingham 0-2 Rotherham United: Millers seal promotion with win that relegates Gills

Rotherham sealed an immediate return to the Championship with victory at Gillingham

Rotherham United sealed promotion to the Championship and consigned Gillingham to relegation to League Two with victory at the Priestfield Stadium.

It is the fourth time in nine seasons that the Millers have been promoted to the Championship, having yo-yoed between League One and the second division.

Rarmani Edmonds-Green's poked first-half finish and a late second from substitute Georgie Kelly, on his debut, in the tense and high-stakes final-day meeting was enough to once again send the Millers up.

Ben Thompson hit the underside of the bar for Gillingham just before the break, but that is as close as they came from taking something from a game that ended their nine-season stay in League One.

Edmonds-Green, who threatened early, put Paul Warne's Millers on track for promotion with his close-range finish on 34 minutes.

Gillingham goalkeeper Aaron Chapman ensured Rotherham could not relax in pursuit of promotion in a game they had to win, brilliantly denying Ben Wiles from close range just before the hour.

Wiles was again denied late on before Kelly, a January arrival from Bohemians, sealed victory with a clinical 89th-minute strike.

Millers bounce straight back again

Rotherham have once again been promoted back to the Championship at the first time of asking.

The Millers have now been promoted to or relegated from the second tier in each of the past six seasons, becoming the second club to bounce between two divisions for six consecutive seasons since Wimbledon did so, between the third and fourth tiers, between 1978 and 1984.

Warne's side suffered heartbreak as they went down on the final day of the 2020-21 campaign despite drawing with Cardiff.

They made an indifferent start to the season, with just three wins from their first seven league matches, but then embarked on a run that saw them go unbeaten in all competitions between 11 September and 26 December.

A run of one league win in seven matches from the start of March, that included a first home defeat since September, saw them drop down to third behind Wigan and MK Dons.

However, three wins from their final five matches proved to be enough to get them over the line.

Promotion ultimately caps a fine season for the South Yorkshire side, who claimed silverware in April, amid their poor league form, when they won the Papa Johns Trophy at Wembley against League Two side Sutton.

This is Warne's third promotion in his five-and-a-half-years in charge of the club and, prior to Saturday's game at Gillingham, he acknowledged that going up this season would top the previous two.

"I want the players to have that moment in time that will keep them connected forever. If we can go up automatically it will be the greatest achievement I have ever had, given the quality in this league," he told BBC Radio Sheffield.

Attention will now turn to seeing if they can put together a squad capable of staying in the Championship, having failed to do so in each of their past three attempts.

Harris unable to save Gills

It's been a difficult season for Gillingham, who have been among the strugglers throughout the campaign, winning only three league games by the end of January.

Boss Steve Evans had already been linked with the job at Stevenage before he left the Gills early in the new year following a run of 13 matches without a win in all competitions.

He was replaced by former Millwall and Cardiff manager Neil Harris on 31 January and his arrival coincided with an upturn in form, with Gillingham winning five and drawing three of his first 12 games in charge to climb four points clear of the relegation zone.

However, they were unable to maintain that momentum as they failed to win any of their final six games to drop into the fourth tier for the first time since 2013.