[themaclad]

Preston North End 3 Holmes, Riis 2 Rotherham United 0

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey (Whatmough, 61), Lindsay, Hughes; Holmes (Seary, 85), McCann (N.Mawene, 77), Browne, Brady (Best, 61); Frøkjær; Keane (Stewart, 77), Riis. Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Woodburn, Osmajić

Rotherham United line-up: Johansson; Peltier (Ferguson, 79), Odoffin, Humphreys, Revan (Seriki, 86); Lindsay, Clucas, Rathbone (Rinomhota, 69); Nombe, Wyke (Eaves, 69), Cafú (Bramall, 45). Subs not used: Phillips, Appiah, Hatton.

Attendance: 15,470 (434 Rotherham United fans).

Referee: Mr S Martin.

Easy as you like against a poor Rotherham side, job done by half time, took the foot off the gas in the second half but points were never in doubt.
Riis returned to the side after his bout of sikness and promptly picked up the man of the match award, terrorised the Millers defence in the first half . Early stages played in a hailstorm of epic proportions, on the pitch the first ten minutes were quiet although it looked as if the Millers were an accident waiting to happen.
Took us 23 minutes but once the first went in it was downhill for Rotherham, defensively the visitors looked poor, unsurprising since they had shipped ten in the last two away games, neat passage of play now have to ive Brady the benefit of the doubt think it actually was a pass across the face of the goal which found Holmes who netted at the back stick.
14 minutes later it was two McCann winning a tackle in midfield ball to Mads FJ into the box the Dane went found Riis who picked his spot.
Holmes and Mads FJ were involved in the third Riis did well to turn and get his shot away and that was basically game over.

To be fair to the black shirted visitors they didn't give uo in the second period Odoffin was probably unlucky not to get one back, but the rarely troubled Woodman, although were eased up a period of play when we kept the ball for the best part of two minutes nearly brought a goal for Keane, Stewart probably should have done better when he had a chance to get a shot away but hard to find fault with them today.
Seary and Noah Mawene got time on the pitch and Best got some game time as well, the youth system starting to pay dividends.

Preston manager Ryan Lowe:

"A clean sheet and three points, nobody can ask for anything more than that I don't think. Overall I thought the performance was fantastic.

"At this time it's just about winning games of football, and we did that comfortably.

"It could have been a potential banana skin but, to be fair to the group, it definitely didn't turn out like that.

"We were on the front foot pretty much throughout the game, we produced some good passages of play and we scored some good goals.

"I'm pleased with the result and the performance. It's all about staying positive, given the position we're in."

Rotherham boss Leam Richardson:

"We know what moment we're in here, and this club is massively in transition, I think we can all see that.

"I feel for all of our fans right now. We've all got to represent ourselves and this club much better than we have been doing.

"It's about me trying to get some confidence into the players and trying my best to give the team some kind of identity. Maybe then we can get better results.

"We certainly don't want to be going out of this division with a whimper. I want everyone to stick together and show a bit more belief and confidence in these final few remaining games of the season."