CHAIRMAN Derek Shaw took a pot shot at Preston's growing army of dissatisfied fans by saying their complaints appalled him in his programme notes.

But while he may reckon the club isn,t doing too badly, the players on the pitch on Boxing Day didn,t do Shaw any favours in terms of keeping the boo boys quiet.

In short, Preston offered little and were comfortably beaten by a better side.

It took North End 32 minutes to even have sight of goal, and Martin McIntosh made no bones about smothering Richard Cresswell's shot.

Rotherham, who always threatened, seemed to carve Preston open easily. Their tight play and ability to hold on to the ball paid off on 53 minutes.

Mark Robins did the business with Andy Monkhouse's left wing cross. There was little David Lucas could do about it - but Graham Alexander will have to shoulder the blame for the goal, his clumsy cross-field ball let in Monkhouse.

Both Tyrone Mears and Eric Skora came close to pulling things level before David Lucas denied Richard Barker.

David Healy had a shot tipped over by Mike Pollitt with 15 minutes remaining before the keeper made a comfortablesave to keep out Iain Anderson's effort.

Myers and Cresswell both went close as Preston attempted to save a point.

But with six minutes to go Barker's overhead kick somehow found its way past Lucas.

No surprises then that the boo boys were in full voice at full time.

PRESTON 0

ROTHERHAM 2