Georgie Kelly is 'second to none' insists Matt Taylor after his first win as Rotherham United boss

Three minutes after entering the fray for Tom Eaves, the Irish striker fired home from close range to help Rotherham claim just their second win in eight matches.

It was just reward for a strong second half from the hosts, who saw Conor Washington's fine 25th-minute strike cancelled out by Danny Ward's leveller five minutes later.

On Kelly, Taylor, who was without top-scorer Chieo Ogbene (hamstring), said: "It was incredible. I want to mention Tom as we are still trying to get up to speed with his game and we need options at the top end of the pitch. I thought he occupied centre-halves without having his most disruptive game.

"To bring Georgie on in that moment, I am still learning about Georgie. He's a cult hero in these parts from what has happened last season and this season. In terms of impact and physicality, he's second to none.

"I was pleased with the performance. It was the most consistent performance we have had since I have been here to date. We controlled large parts of the game and worked some good opportunities.

"We have to defend set-pieces better than we did, certainly in terms of holding onto the lead for longer in the first half. But I thought we kept them at arms length in the second half and controlled our middle of the pitch and baring a few moments, saw out the game pretty well.

"The players will get all the rewards. Rightly so, it was another big effort from them.

"We are judged on winning games of football. It is about winning games, even more so at home. This team and club, if we want to be successful this season and be where we need to be at the end, will be down to our home fan and it's been generally strong so far.

"It was a real squad performance. As much as we all spoke about having a free week to prepare, it turned into a difficult week with Brooke (Norton-Cuffy) dropping out on Tuesday with a hamstring complaint and Cohen (Bramall) missing the first few days of training with illness and Peter Kioso picking up an ankle (issue) on Tuesday and Chieo (Ogbene) dropping out on Thursday. We were able to influence the game with the squad available."

The Millers did survive a big late penalty scare when Jack Rudoni tangled with Bramall in the box.

Offering his take, Taylor added: "I have not seen it back. We got on the wrong side. You can moan about the referee and it was an interesting game for the referee and I didn't feel many 50-50s went our way for large parts of it."If he'd have given that one, I'd have been disappointed. There were some soft decisions which didn't quite go our way, so maybe we deserved that one."