Matt Hamshaw full of praise as Rotherham’s January signings earn comeback win

Rotherham boss Matt Hamshaw was full of praise for his two January signings Harry Gray and Emmanuel Adegboyega after their goals earned the Millers a 2-1 League One comeback victory at home to Northampton.

Leeds loanee Gray’s first senior goal cancelled out former Rotherham striker Tom Eaves’ opener but it was Adegboyega who sealed the victory for the Millers late on.

Northampton later issued a statement denouncing a “racist social media post” directed at some of their players and said the matter had been reported to the police.

The statement said: “Northampton Town Football Club condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the racist social media post directed at some of our players after Tuesday’s game at Rotherham.

“The club have reported the post to both the social media platform concerned and the police and will co-operate fully with any investigation that follows.

“The club will not tolerate such unacceptable comments and fully support our players.”

The result moves Rotherham to within just one point and once place of the Cobblers, who sit third-bottom.

Hamshaw admitted he did not think his side would be walking away with three points at half-time.

He said: “We’re a bit low on confidence, on a run of defeats and then all of a sudden we get a bit of a spark.

“Harry scores his first senior goal which is amazing for him and it couldn’t have gone better with Manny scoring.

“They’re two players we’ve brought in this window and they’ve made a huge impact.”

Hamshaw is hoping his side can build on the result, adding: “It’s just nice to win a game of football but we’ve got to build on that.

“Let’s just enjoy it tonight because it’s been rough few weeks for us all.”

Former Millers’ striker Eaves had already tested Cameron Dawson before he opened the scoring in the 27th minute.

Sam Hoskins’ cross was flicked on superbly by Jon Guthrie to Eaves, who made no mistake to put his side into the lead.

His celebrations were muted but the Cobblers’ fans – who had not seen their team score away since Boxing Day – went wild.

Northampton thought they should have been awarded a penalty early in the second half after the ball seemingly hit the arm of Ar’Jany Martha but referee Alan Young waved away the appeals.

It got worse for the away side when youngster Gray headed in a Joe Powell corner for his first goal for the club in the 58th minute.

Substitute Adegboyega was in the right place at the right time for Rotherham as he headed home in the 84th minute to give the Millers the victory.

Northampton manager Kevin Nolan thought his side should have been awarded a penalty but admitted they must learn from this defeat.

He said: “The referee’s let us down again. We’re 1-0 up and everyone else can see it.

“All the fans knew it was a penalty and he didn’t at such a critical time for us in the game but the way we’ve defended those set-pieces is so poor.

“What we’ve got to do is learn from it. We’ve just said to them then, ‘you can’t give teams goals the way we’re gifting them at the minute’.

“In training they’re showing it, showing a bit of quality – but they’re not producing it on the pitch.”