Bristol City 2-0 Rotherham: Conway and Twine score as Millers end season without away win

Tommy Conway's first-half penalty put Bristol City aheadImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Tommy Conway's first-half penalty put Bristol City ahead

Goals from Tommy Conway and Scott Twine gave Bristol City a comfortable victory over relegated Rotherham, who will end the season without a single away win.

Conway scored with a first-half penalty after being brought down by keeper Dillon Phillips - the forward's 12th goal of the season.

And Twine sealed the Robins' win with a sweetly-struck free-kick 12 minutes into the second half.

Twine almost added a third but was unable to apply the finish to Nahki Wells' cross.

Rotherham, whose relegation was confirmed earlier this month, continue to struggle badly away from home.

It is the first time a team in England's top four divisions has completed a league campaign without an away victory since the Yorkshire club failed to win on the road in 2016-17, when they were also relegated from the Championship.

The two goals conceded also meant they became the first side in the top four divisions to ship 60 or more away goals during a season since that Rotherham team of 2016-17, which shipped 64.

The Millers have won just one of their past 21 matches and have failed to score in both their two games since Steve Evans' recent return as manager.

Evans led the club from the bottom division to the Championship during his first spell in charge and has insisted that they will challenge for promotion from League One next season. But a major rebuilding job is clearly required.

City's win moved them up to 11th in the table and they are now unbeaten in seven matches.

Rotherham, meanwhile, are 21 points behind second-from-bottom Huddersfield.

Bristol City head coach Liam Manning told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I thought it was a solid performance from start to finish. We had control and created really good chances. I'm delighted to get the win and clean sheet.

"We set the players a challenge going into the final eight games - really pushing to build momentum for next season and trying to develop some strong habits. You're starting to see that come out.

"It's about making sure that every time we turn up, we're at our maximum and you can really see the group are growing and moving forward.

"We'll finish higher than last season with more points. The bit we're chasing is consistency.

"In the summer we need to add the right ones and it hopefully allows us to progress next season."

Rotherham manager Steve Evans told BBC Radio Sheffield:

"They got a penalty for what looks like a dive. I think the boy (Conway) has just overrun the ball.

"That first goal gives them a lot of momentum and probably makes our boys nervy not to concede three or four goals, which has probably been semi-normal.

"I thought the performance was very workmanlike. We showed lots of energy and industry. But they were by far the better side.

"I'm really disappointed with the referee's decision to give the penalty in the first half, but we understand we were a long way second today. It's not a close second - we were a long way second.

"I've praised the boys for their efforts. There's lots of learning that I'm going through at this period in time."

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