Kuqi gives lift-off to battling Wednesday

Rotherham United 0 Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday secured their first away win of the season against their South Yorkshire rivals Rotherham at Millmoor yesterday to move off the bottom of the First Division.

Second-half goals from Shefki Kuqi and Adam Proudlock gave Wednesday victory, but the Owls manager, Chris Turner, admitted there is still a long fight ahead if the club are to avoid relegation. "I am not going to get carried away by beating Rotherham," he said.

"We defended well and although we were a little fortunate at times it was an excellent afternoon for us with all the players working very hard."

The Rotherham manager, Ronnie Moore, had no arguments with the result and was unhappy with his side's performance. "We got what we deserved out of this game: nothing," he said.

"Our second-half display was just unacceptable. I said we would be better than in our last game against Millwall, but in the second half we were worse. It just looked as though we were trying to give Wednesday a helping hand."

Moore admitted there was a need for new recruits to kick-start Rotherham's season. "We shall be doing our best to bring in some new faces," he said. "Wednesday had six loan players on show today but we have been unable to bring anyone in."

It was a typically frenetic local derby in the first half with chances at both ends, but none taken. Rotherham's best opportunities fell to Martin McIntosh and Paul Warne. After 15 minutes McIntosh shot from the edge of the penalty area and brought a tremendous save from Kevin Pressman.

Just before the break, Warne had a great chance from a similar position on the edge of the area. Substitute Darren Garner carved out the opening and Warne's right-foot shot flew inches wide of the upright.

At half-time Wednesday brought on Alan Quinn for the injured Paul McLaren and Quinn took charge of midfield. However, it took the visitors until the 67th minute to score. A pin-point cross from Derek Geary on the left was met by the neatest of diving headers from Kuqi to turn the ball wide into the bottom corner.

A minute after Proudlock missed an open goal, he made sure of a Wednesday victory. Normal time was almost up when Quinn fed Kuqi and the Finnish international striker picked out Proudlock. His first shot was saved at point-blank range but Proudlock, currently on loan from Wolves, latched onto the rebound and made no mistake with his second effort to condemn Rotherham to their third successive home defeat.

Rotherham United (4-4-2): Pollitt; Hurst, Swailes, McIntosh, Bryan; Daws, Warne (Branston, 76), Sedgwick (Robins, 76), Mullin (Garner, 38); R Barker, Lee. Substitutes not used: Gray (gk), Talbot.

Sheffield Wednesday (4-3-3): Pressman; Crane, Westwood, Monk, Geary; Johnston, Soltvedt, McLaren (Quinn, h-t); Proudlock, Kuqi, Bradbury (Bromby, 83). Substitutes not used: Stringer (gk), Morrison, Haslam.

Referee: R Pearson (Peterlee).