Leeds United 3-0 Rotherham United: Crysencio Summerville stars as Leeds beat Millers - BBC Sport

Leeds United 3-0 Rotherham United: Crysencio Summerville stars as Leeds beat Millers

Crysencio Summerville scores his second goal in Leeds United's victory over Rotherham UnitedImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Crysencio Summerville has now scored 15 goals in all competitions this season

Top scorer Crysencio Summerville scored twice against Rotherham as Leeds United earned a fifth successive league win to keep the pressure on the Championship's top two.

Patrick Bamford was also on target against the Millers, who remain 12 points from safety at the foot of the table.

The hosts were dominant throughout and could have scored even more as they maintained their 100% league record in 2024.

Elland Road has still not witnessed a home defeat in the Championship this campaign, while Rotherham's winless run on the road stretches to 28 games.

Leeds manager Daniel Farke was named the league's manager of the month for January in the week, and that momentum continued into February in impressive style.

It took less than 10 minutes for the in-form hosts to assert their dominance on their lowly opponents, with Bamford's fourth goal in six games since the start of the year setting Farke's side on their way.

The forward was alert to turn home Junior Firpo's cross, despite protests from the visitors that the ball had gone in off Bamford's arm.

From there, it was one-way traffic and Rotherham had keeper Viktor Johansson to thank for going in at half-time only one goal behind.

Smart blocks from Summerville, Archie Gray, and Willy Gnonto efforts prevented Leeds doubling their lead, while the stopper was also alert to smother the ball when Georginio Rutter bore down on goal.

It was the same story after the break, and when Johansson was beaten, the bar came to his rescue as Bamford could only hit the woodwork from Summerville's cutback, with Gnonto unable to turn home the rebound.

Rotherham's number one was beaten again moments later, though, as Summerville scored his 14th goal of the campaign, calmly lifting the ball over Johansson after being put through by a long ball.

The 15th soon followed after as the Dutchman converted a Panenka penalty.

Gnonto came closest to adding a fourth, firing just wide after cutting in from the wing, while the away side's best chance came courtesy of Sam Clucas, who saw his late effort well kept out by Illan Meslier.

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Leeds:

"It could have been a tennis score with the chances we created, but you have to respect Rotherham for fighting until the end. They never gave up and they had a few set-pieces in the final 10 minutes so we are happy with the 3-0.

"If Patrick's goal was a handball then it probably should not have stood, but these things do even themselves out over the course of a season. It can sometimes be more important if it was a match-winning goal, but today we created so many chances and we scored more goals. I don't think it would have made a difference to the result if it was disallowed.

"I was happy with the manner in which we scored and created the chances, and we could have scored more. But it's important that we also came back to the dressing room with a clean sheet. Sometimes when you have this level of dominance you can get carried away and lose your discipline, and we didn't at any point today."

Rotherham United manager Leam Richardson told BBC Radio Sheffield:

"We started the game terrifically well and took the onus to them, but then the big decision went against us and it was always an uphill challenge from there.

"You are always going to refer to the first goal. It is a blatant handball. It's always a tough place to come anyway and, if you get decisions like that against you then you are up against it because they can allow themselves more freedom.

"We got into some really good positions but didn't take care of the ball enough and have that belief.

"When I came in we had a challenge on our hands and we had a choice to either make a fist of it and go forward with that challenge or roll over and go around the country and not give a good account of ourselves. You want to get a positive result every time you take to the pitch."

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