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Millers and Daggers hold the aces

Author: John Harris
Date: 19/05/2010
Football betting

One tie is poised on a knife-edge while the other is effectively over ahead of the second legs of the League Two play-off semi-finals this week.

Rotherham United and Aldershot Town have everything to play for at the Don Valley Stadium on Wednesday night with the Millers holding a 1-0 advantage after the first leg.

However, the same cannot be said of poor Morecambe after they were thrashed 6-0 by Dagenham & Redbridge in the first leg of their semi-final on Sunday afternoon.

Josh Scott helped himself to four goals in a rout of a side that finished just one place outside the automatic promotion places.

Even Shrimps boss Sammy McIlroy has ruled out a dramatic fightback, saying: "Obviously to get six is a big ask, but if my lads win 1-0 at least they'll have got something back. They've got to show something on Thursday night after this performance."

So with that in mind we'll focus our attention on the other semi-final between Rotherham and Aldershot where both clubs have a realistic chance of facing Dagenham in the Wembley final.

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Rotherham are marginal online betting favourites as they hold a slender advantage following Adam Le Fondre's 88th-minute winner at the Recreation Ground.

The Millers edged a tight encounter between the clubs who finished fifth and six in the regular season and were only separated by one point following a 46-game campaign.

However, manager Ronnie Moore is taking nothing for granted, warning: "No-one is getting over-excited over anything, there's still an awful lot of work to be done. But if we defend in the same way we did in the first leg then we'll win the game. I thought defensively we were outstanding."

Meanwhile, the Shots will be buoyed by their previous performances against the South Yorkshire club this season.

Kevin Dillon's side drew 0-0 at the Don Valley Stadium in October but ran out 3-0 winners on home soil in April and the visiting manager has started the mind games.

"We were 25-1 outsiders for promotion when I took over and that is probably still the case," he said. "It is a fantastic achievement for ourselves, Morecambe and Dagenham to make the play-offs this year after just coming out of the Conference but everyone expects Rotherham to go up."

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