Matt Taylor on Rotherham United's backs-to-the-wall draw at Norwich City and gives update on injured goalkeeper
The Millers had beaten another top-six hopeful in West Brom on Good Friday and backed it up with a goalless draw at the Canaries.
It was a third straight home game without a goal for the Canaries, who dropped to eighth in the Championship table as a result, but they are still just one point adrift of the play-off positions.
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Hide AdFor the Millers, four points over Easter nudges them up to 45 points, four clear of Reading in the final relegation spot with three teams between them.
Rotherham barely threatened all afternoon – Norwich had 21 shots to their six - but defended solidly to come away with a hard-earned point in their battle against the drop.
“It has been a good Easter for us, there’s no doubt about that,” said Millers boss Matt Taylor, pictured. “If you had told me before that we would take four points out of six against West Brom and Norwich I would certainly have taken that.
“Both of those clubs have a lot of good players and we can’t match them in that department but we can match them in others and that’s what you saw again today.
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Hide Ad“We had to defend well and make some last-ditch tackles and blocks but you expect that against a team like Norwich. We dealt with their pressure very well even though we didn’t threaten much going forward.
“It’s good to have 45 points with six games to go but now it’s all about what comes next. We have got to build on these two results, even though the injuries are making it tough for us.”
Norwich were on the front foot from the word go, with Josh Vickers making two excellent stops in the first five minutes to thwart first Sam McCallum and then Josh Sargent. Teemu Pukki then wasted a decent opportunity when dwelling on the ball for too long after being put clear while after the break two dramatic goalline clearances kept the home side out.
Tyler Blackett was in the right place at the right time to hook Onel Hernandez’s deflected shot away from danger, while in injury time Wes Harding did likewise to keep out a prod at goal from substitute Christos Tzolis after Vickers had missed a corner.
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Hide AdReserve goalkeeper Vickers was called upon when Rotherham lost in-form keeper Viktor Johansson in training in the lead-up to the game.
Taylor said: “Viktor has been outstanding since I have been here, our player of the season by a country mile, so to lose him is a real setback. He injured his shoulder in training and was in a sling today so it doesn’t look good. But Josh came in and was excellent – he was number one here before my time and showed why with his performance.”