Northampton beaten at home by managerless Rotherham United

Northampton Town suffered a 2-0 defeat at home to managerless Rotherham United.

Goals from Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu and Sam Nombe saw the Millers win in their first match since the departure of Steve Evans earlier this week.

The defeat means the Cobblers see their gap to the bottom 3 reduced to just four points after 21st placed side Burton Albion won at home to Leyton Orient.

While the Cobblers were chasing a first home win since February 22nd, they faced the test of a Rotherham side under temporary management. The South Yorkshire club had chosen to sack Evans after a 4-0 home defeat by Crawley Town on the weekend, with Matt Hamshaw in temporary charge.

The visitors started stronger, however, with Liam Kelly firing over before Lee Burge had to make saves to stop attempts by Hakeem Odoffin and Nombe.

Having had the early pressure, Rotherham duly took the lead after 22 minutes. Mpanzu ended up being credited as the scorer as the former Luton man deflected Louis Sibley’s long-range effort past Burge and into the back of the net.

After the half-time break, Northampton did offer more as Cameron Dawson had to make a fine stop to keep out Sam Hoskins and later made a further intervention to keep out Cameron McGeehan.

But with 65 minutes on the clock, Rotherham extended their advantage. Northampton failed to clear a Rotherham corner and the ball eventually wound up with Nombe, with the former MK Dons man prodding the ball over the line from 2 yards.

Although substitute Tom Eaves would have a late effort denied by Dawson, there was no way back in the end for the home side, who suffer defeat at Sixfields, with the bad news compounded by word that Burton had beaten Leyton Orient to close the gap.

A tricky test awaits Kevin Nolan’s side in their attempts to pick up what would be a first win in five games at the weekend, when they travel to face Peterborough United in the Nene Valley Derby.