Brentford 0 Rotherham United 0

Last updated : 31 August 2008 By Footymad Previewer
Defences were on top in West London and chances were few and far between as a stop-start game died a painful death in a swamped midfield.

Brentford created the clearest opening of the afternoon with the best piece of football, when Charlie MacDonald released Marvin Williams on the right, his cross found Nathan Elder eight yards out but he headed wide at full stretch.

Rotherham came to Griffin Park with three central midfielders and seemed content to sit deep but were dangerous on the break.

They could have edged ahead early on when Drewe Broughton nipped in behind the home defence but he was pressurised and shot wide.

And they should have scored when Reuben Reid led a break from a corner and found Broughton unmarked, but he dithered and James Wilson made a spectacular recovery tackle.

Reid volleyed over soon after and Alex Rhodes smashed a shot wide, while at the other end MacDonald had an effort blocked after a nice turn and narrowly failed to slot home an Elder knockdown late in the second half.

Nick Fenton had a header scrambled away for the visitors while Elder had a shot blocked and saw another header drop wide.

But with both teams resorting to long balls forward and two pairs of central defenders in fine form, the game drifted to a close with neither goalkeeper forced into a noteworthy save.
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