Rotherham United 1 Burnley 0 - Tony Dewhurst reports

MILLMOOR is surrounded on all four sides by a bleak urban decay.

Gun metal grey factory roofs, industrial scrapyards, polluted rivers and grimy church steeples all dominate an unforgiving landscape.

A mile away, the M1 motorway roars across the Rother Valley skyline, underneath a spaghetti of canals, towpaths and railway lines.

Tucked away amid a sea of pylons, concrete and marshalling yard floodlights, Millmoor stands alone, almost forgotten amongst the hubbub of flailing industry.

An expanse of terrace, the compact stadium once squeezed 25,000 in for FA Cup ties against Sheffield United and Wednesday in the 1950s.

These days, though, a regular 3,000 come to pay homage.

Rotherham was never picture postcard stuff. A recession-hit South Yorkshire town struggling for survival in the shadow of the Sheffield sprawl.

There is a bristling, tough Northerness about the place. Gritty alehouses: The Tut 'N' Shive or Moulder's Rest. They serve up the famous Pukka Pies inside Millmoor.

There was once even a Rotherham fanzine called the 'The Deranged Ferret!' It is an unforgiving Tyke environment which, perhaps, proved more than apt in the circumstances.

Because Millmoor was never a happy hunting ground for Burnley.

In nine league meetings between the two Roses rivals, the Clarets have won only once.

A miserable record. And I'll bet none of those jousts was as poor as this.

Because Burnley were simply woeful against a team rooted firmly to the bottom of the Second Division table.

This, in my book, was the poorest Burnley display since Adrian Heath's appointment eight months ago.

Forget the end of season maulings at Oxford and Wycombe, Heath had inherited a team already on the slide.

This season is a fresh start and this is where the honeymoon ended between the manager and his staff.

Never have I seen Heath so down after a defeat. He exploded with rage in a decidely down-beat post-match inquest.

He was unable to explain away the performance. But promised that the axe could soon fall on one or two senior heads.

He rightly felt that the players had let the fans and the management team down badly.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Heath and the huge Lancashire support. The fans, as ever, deserved so much more.

Hundreds had drifted away from the stadium long before the end. The final whistle was greeted with chants of: 'What a load of rubbish.' Perhaps he most frustrating aspect of all is that Rotherham were there for the taking.

The Millers are already favourites to take the drop next May. A side struggling for survival, they were mediocre opposition at best.

They had scored five goals at Millmoor before the weekend and harvested the same number of points from 11 league games.

Their only success before Burnley arrived in town? A 1-0 win over Bournemouth.

Yet Danny Bergara's side showed more heart, passion and conviction for the job than Burnley could ever hope to muster.

Who could have predicted this after the demolition job against Stockport County?

Heath fielded the same 11 faces, yet, at times, they appeared strangers to the cause.

Yet, as every Turf Moor fan knows, Burnley's ability to confound and disappoint knows no bounds. They have become experts at it over the years.

And until that consistency level improves Burnley are not going to make any genuine headway in Division Two.

The Clarets have not won on their travels in the league since the opening day of the season at Luton Town, and that's a concern.

Rotherham settled the contest three minutes before half-time.

The defence weant AWOL as the unmarked Mark Druce - on loan from Oxford - had enough time to stoop low to head home John McGlashan's centre. Rotherham, in fact, underlined their threat to the visitors, carving out several early openings.

McGlashan went closest, heading against the Burnley bar in only the second minute.

Burnley could make little progress against the Rotherham back-line, marshalled superbly by former Claret Mark Monington and Sheffield United old boy Brian Gayle.

Monington never put a foot wrong as Burnley failed to find a spark to ignite their poor performance.

They could only muster two efforts on goal in the first hour, and the service to Paul Barnes and Kurt Nogan was negligible.

The Clarets did improve after half-time. David Eyres was posted onto the left flank with Gerry Harrison switching over to the left, full-back slot.

While Damian Matthew replaced Paul Weller in midfield.

Steve Cherry had to be alert to block Paul Smith's shot and the Rotherham goalkeeper was on hand again a minute later, beating Eyres shot away.

Andy Hayward should have killed the game off 10 minutes from time, but Marlon Beresford produced a brave save to deny the Rotherham striker.

But Burnley deserved nothing from a contest sponsored by television comedy duo, The Chuckle Brothers.

This was an episode of Chuckle Vision when mirth, merriment and laughter was in extremely short supply for Burnley fans.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.