Rotherham United 3-1 West Bromwich Albion: Jordan Hugill inspires Millers to victory
- Published
- comments
Jordan Hugill scored just once in 20 appearances on loan to West Brom last season
West Bromwich Albion's hopes of a Championship play-off place hang by a thread as Jordan Hugill scored twice to help ease Rotherham's relegation fears in a 3-1 win.
Having missed a couple of excellent chances Rotherham fell behind to John Swift's penalty after Hugill had fouled Conor Townsend.
But the former Baggies loan striker deservedly equalised when he rose highest to head home Conor Coventry's corner.
He hit the bar with another header as the Millers ended the half strongly, then headed Rotherham ahead shortly after half-time before Tarique Fosu blasted in a third from close range.
After the rest of the Good Friday programme had been completed, that left Rotherham three points clear of the relegation places.
Depleted Albion, who already had Grady Diangana, Jayson Molumby, Dara O'Shea and Jake Livermore missing, suffered another injury in training on Thursday when they lost Adam Reach for the rest of the season with a quad injury.
They are now points shy of the play-off places in 10th, but still with a game in hand.
Rotherham should have been ahead inside the first five minutes when Hugill missed from six yards after West Brom had failed to deal with Chiedozie Ogbene's ball across the face of goal.
American striker Daryl Dike looked lively for Albion early on, forcing a save from Viktor Johansson shortly before Hugill's miss and he just failed to direct Jed Wallace's dangerous 10th-minute cross on target.
But the Millers continued to create decent chances. Fosu fired over from close range after Josh Griffiths failed to keep hold of Leo Hjelde's powerful long-range effort, and then the Baggies keeper made a good save from Jamie Lindsay after a mistake by Semi Ajayi.
Having gone behind to Swift's penalty Rotherham almost equalised immediately when Hugill headed over before Griffiths made another good save, from Shane Ferguson.
But Hugill made amends with his equaliser before seeing teammate Ogbene force a save from Griffiths, and then hitting the woodwork himself, as the Baggies twice had to clear the ball off the line.
Hugill's second came when he rose highest to head Shane Ferguson's free kick down and in before Griffiths saved superbly from the January signing three minutes after a ball over the top.
With 14 minutes to go, Fosu ended any doubt when he blasted into the roof of the net having got on the end of a nice one-two shortly after Ogbene had hit the West Brom bar.
Griffiths was forced into a good save from Wes Harding with five minutes left while Ogbene hit the bar from six yards in stoppage time, as those Albion away fans that had not left New York Stadium early chanted "you're not fit to wear the shirt" at their players.
Rotherham United manager Matt Taylor told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"We've not had many games like that this season where we've dominated throughout.
"Even when we were 1-0 down we had the majority of the shots and the pressure, we just lacked a clinical edge in their box and denied our box properly on one occasion.
"That's a big moment for this group of players and the club as well because we know going behind at home is a difficult thing, despite it feeling like it was unjust, and it's how quickly you can get back into the game and back feeling good about ourselves
"Jordan's goal was a big moment and from that point on we just got stronger and stronger."
Albion head coach Carlos Corberan told BBC WM:
"We knew before he game how tough the game would be. I told my players about my thoughts on the competitiveness this game demanded and, for me, we started with the right mind as we adapted well to the tempo of the game.
"But then they started to dominate the game in the moments that they wanted with set-pieces, attacking more in our half than we were attacking in their half.
"We couldn't dominate well enough the second balls so I think we did well last week, we didn't do well enough.
"I was hoping that with the goal that we scored that we'd find a better way for the rest of game but, unfortunately, after the goal we struggled to do something and they were the better team and they achieved the result because they deserved it."