Winless on their previous 16 league visits tro Barnsley – with the barren streak stretching back to March 1969 – Rotherham finally had their moment, with Kian Spence’s fabulous 64th-minute strike securing three precious points.
The strike was fit to win any derby and there were scenes of jubilation between players, staff and supporters at the final whistle in front of 1,982 thrilled Millers followers.
On the win, Hamshaw – who had been speaking about the Millers record in Barnsley to his players all week – in the hope of inspiring an end to it – said: “It sounds amazing. I’ve just kind of got a bit emotional with the lads in the changing room.
I banged on about this record all week to them. Look, I thought Barnsley were by far the better team in the first half. Then, second half, we made changes and I felt we were quite comfortable.
We scored a really good goal and arguably could have scored another one. Local rivalries, local derbies … I’ve had a bit of despair this season already, and so it’s nice to get a win chalked up. On Spence’s fantastic strike, he added: “I’ve been saying all along how Kian Spence can chip in with goals. I think we saw his qualities today.
“I thought he covered every blade of grass. He was really tenacious.
I just felt probably in the first half we lacked a bit of that, if I’m going be honest. Then, second half, I thought we came out on the front foot.
“Obviously, bringing Sam Nombe on makes a massive difference to this team and it kind of galvanised the group. I had good options from the bench today.”
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