A characteristically elegant swipe of Stewart Downing’s left foot cut through the Teesside mist to keep Middlesbrough on course for a return to the Premier League and leave Rotherham stuck to the foot of the Championship.
Aitor Karanka’s side remain fourth – but only one point off the top – at the end of a night when the £5m invested in returning Downing to his native north-east from West Ham last July once again paid dividends.
“The most important thing was the three points, sometimes it’s hard to play the bottom side,” said Karanka, whose players missed a string of chances throughout what turned into a surprising slog of a game. “But Stewart was amazing.”
Certainly the last person Rotherham wanted to concede possession to was the former England winger and sure enough, Grant Ward’s slapdash pass lead to Downing pouncing on the resultant loose ball. Accelerating towards goal, he proceeding to elude Lee Camp courtesy of a crisp low, left-foot shot dispatched on an unerring trajectory towards the bottom corner.
Caught all out of position Neil Redfearn’s defence swiftly suffered another breach. Camp was again beaten but this time the woodwork offered Danny Collins and Co a reprieve as Carlos de Pena’s header rattled the bar following David Nugent’s cross.
Karanka’s decison to allow his best defender, Daniel Ayala, a rest on the bench – which may have had something to do with Ayala being one yellow card from a suspension, with Boro having a very important game at Hull, the leaders, on Saturday – seemed vindicated. Certainly, his goalkeeper, Dimi Konstantopoulos, was seriously under-employed on an evening when only Tony Andreu really threatened for Rotherham.
Even so Redfearn’s players did enjoy patches of sustained possession and Karanka’s slightly edgy technical area demeanour betrayed a certain anxiety about the slenderness of his side’s lead.
How the Spaniard could have done with Albert Adomah converting George Friend’s fabulous nutmeg and precision cross but the winger miscued over the bar.
Downing kept conjuring chances but collectively Boro were losing tempo and momentum, leaving the 21,000-plus crowd increasingly subdued and, briefly, alarmed when a slip from Fernando Amorebieta allowed Jordan Bowery a chance which he could not convert.
“Middlesbrough are really good, a top side, but at times we kept possession well and frustrated the fans,” said Redfearn, who is still seeking his first win after a month in charge at Rotherham. “We were always in it.”
