Bristol City vs Rotherham United. Sky Bet Championship.
Ashton Gate StadiumAttendance22,873.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Bristol City and Rotherham United at Ashton Gate on Saturday | Goals from Tommy Conway and Scott Twine seal a comfortable win for Liam Manning's Robins
Saturday 27 April 2024 18:51, UK
A goal in each half from Tommy Conway and Scott Twine saw Bristol City extend their unbeaten run to seven games with a 2-0 win over relegated Rotherham at Ashton Gate.
The home side took a 32nd-minute lead when Conway was brought down as he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips. The striker got up to send Phillips the wrong way with a well-struck penalty for his 12th goal of the season.
Twine doubled the advantage with a superb 57th-minute free-kick, bent around to wall with his right foot from 25 yards.
Rotherham barely threatened, but stuck to their task gamely despite being clearly second best on the day.
An open first half began with City looking as though they might break through the centre of Rotherham's defence at will. Conway had a low shot saved and Cam Pring fired over from distance.
Phillips made a brave save at the feet of Conway on 20 minutes before Rotherham suddenly sprang to life as attacking force. Tom Eaves broke through the middle only to be denied by a Max O'Leary.
The City goalkeeper was in action again seconds later, tipping over a powerful Hakeem Odoffin header from Oliver Rathbone's right-wing corner.
Conway was proving a handful for the Rotherham back-line, seeing a shot saved on 29 minutes. When he broke clear again and took the ball around Phillips the keeper tripped him to concede a spot-kick.
It was dispatched with confidence as Conway matched his goal tally for last season. He had another close-range effort saved before the break, with Phillips keeping Rotherham in the game.
Twine was just too high with a free-kick from a narrow angle as City finished the first half well on top.
Rotherham made a change at the interval, sending on Grant Hall for Arvin Appiah and started well with Sebastian Revan shooting wide from a Cohen Bramall cross.
Soon City were back in the ascendency, James having a shot blocked inside the box before Twine's sweetly-struck free-kick after he had been fouled spelt more misery for the Millers.
The home side were dominant as the impressive Twine volleyed wide from a cross by substitute Nahki Wells and then sent another long range effort wide.
Twine left the field to a rousing ovation when replaced by Andy King on 81 minutes and City head coach Liam Manning had the luxury of being able to give a debut to young winger Elijah Morrison in the closing stages.
Rotherham never gave up, Eaves heading a late chance wide, but lacked the quality to test a City team ending the campaign in some style.
Bristol City's Liam Manning:
"I believe fans should dream big, as long as they understand the processes necessary for making the dreams come true.
"It means players, staff and supporters being the best they can be every single day. Only by that being the case can you build the level of consistency necessary to mount a promotion challenge.
"We had problems with consistency earlier in the season, but recently the lads have been right at it in every game.
"There are clear signs of things progressing in the right direction and I am really looking forward to having a full pre-season with the players to build on that.
"Coming in midway through a season is not ideal because it takes time to get ideas across. I believe all clubs should start a season looking to win their league and we shall prepare with that in mind.
"Today we won most of the battles and that enabled us to dictate how the game was played.
"We could have been more clinical and won by a bigger margin. But I couldn't be happier with how the players have applied themselves in recent weeks.
"No one is getting carried away. But there is cause of encouragement and optimism looking ahead."
Rotherham's Steve Evans:
"We were clearly second best today. Bristol City were technically better than us, but I was proud of the way my players stuck to their task," he said of the Millers who are headed for League One.
"Tom Eaves had a great chance to open the scoring. They will say their goalkeeper made himself big for the save, but it was a key moment because goals change games.
"I would like to have seen how we performed if taking the lead. But it wasn't to be and then the referee has made a mistake for the penalty.
"I thought at the time that Tommy Conway went down late and having seen the incident again I know he wasn't fouled.
"There was not much we could have done about the free-kick, although again I wasn't sure it was a foul.
"But the players kept going to the very end. This is one of the biggest challenges I have taken on, but I am confident that we can bounce back next season.
"I am preparing a document for the chairman which will lay out my views and plans to get us back into the Championship.
"He wants me to be brutally honest and that will be the case. I will deliver the document next week and then the hard work begins."
