Rotherham United 2 Sunderland 1: Highlights as Cats are beaten despite Joe Gelhardt goal at New York Stadium

Sunderland were beaten 2-1 at Rotherham United at the New York Stadium
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Rotherham took the lead in the 19th minute when captain Ollie Rathbone struck a low effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

The hosts then added a second 11 minutes after half-time when Shane Ferguson broke down the left before converting another low effort.

Leeds loanee Joe Gelhardt did score his first Sunderland goal just after the hour mark, but it was too little too late.

Here’s how the game played out:

RECAP: Rotherham 2 (Rathbone, 19) (Ferguson, 56) Sunderland 1 (Gelhardt, 61)

Key Events

  • Sunderland XI: Patterson, O’Nien, Ballard, Batth (Alese, 62), Cirkin (Hume, 62), Neil, Michut (Roberts, 62) , Amad, Pritchard (Ba, 85), Clarke (Bennette, 85), Gelhardt
  • Subs: Bass, Alese, Hume, Ba, Ekwah, Roberts, Bennette
  • Rotherham XI: Johansson, Peltier (Odoffin, 80), Humphreys, Hall (Harding, 45), Hjelde, Coventry, Rathbone (Washington, 78), Ogbene, Fosu, Ferguson (Lindsay, 64), Hugill.
  • Subs: Vickers, Harding, Bramall, Lindsay, Odoffin, Washington, Kelly

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture at Rotherham.

The Black Cats are in fine form, despite conceding a stoppage-time equaliser against Bristol City on Saturday, but now face two more away fixtures this week.

We’ll have all the build-up from the New York Stadium, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.

Jewison Bennette is set to return to the Sunderland squad tonight after missing the weekend’s match with a minor knock.

Mowbray has also suggested he will make more changes against Rotherham, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Coventry.

Lynden Gooch and Niall Huggins remain unavailable as they work their way back to full fitness, while Ross Stewart, Corry Evans and Elliot Embleton remain sidelined with long-term injuries.

Mowbray on his team selection

Here’s what Mowbray said when asked about making changes for tonight’s match:

“We’re trying to get the balance right.

“We’ve made three changes in the last couple of games, and there’ll probably be another three changes for Rotherham.

“There might be for the weekend again, but then after that, we’ve got a week of going Saturday to Saturday where hopefully we can recover a bit.

“At this moment, we’re not really tinkering because of the opposition, the changes are about our team and who we think might need a bit of a rest.”

How Rotherham are shaping up

Rotehrham have dropped to 21st in the Championship following a run of five league games without a win - including Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat against Coventry.

That result leaves The Millers just two points above the relegation zone heading into tonight’s match.

Bailey Wright, who has started one game for Rotherham, is unavailable against his parent club, while influential midfielder Ben Wiles remains sidelined with an ankle injury.

Taylor on Sunderland fixture

Here’s what Rotherham boss Matt Taylor has had to say about Sunderland and tonight’s match:

They’re a fantastic side. They’ve invested well and recruited well and got some good players for the level. They have a couple of loans in there as well who have certainly improved them.

We’re at home and we have to make the running. We have to put them under pressure. We know their style and what they’ll want to do when they come to our pitch. We have to make it ‘our pitch’ like we did for the first half on Saturday.

We put a good team [Coventry] on the back foot. We just couldn’t quite break through them. We have to try and do the same to Sunderland.

Here are our predicted line-ups for tonight’s match:

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, O’Nien, Ballard, Batth, Cirkin, Neil, Michut, Amad, Pritchard, Clarke, Gelhardt

Predicted Rotherham XI: Johansson, Peltier, Hall, Humphreys, Bramall, Odoffin, Coventry, Ogbene, Rathbone, Washington, Hugill

What the table looks like

Here’s what the Championship table looks like following Watford’s 3-2 win over West Brom last night.

There are five more fixtures in the second tier this evening.

Tonight’s Championship fixtures:

Blackburn vs Blackpool

Millwall vs Burnley

Norwich vs Birmingham

Rotherham vs Sunderland

Swansea vs Stoke