Two goals in the last ten minutes, including a penalty even the hosts considered generous, failed to tell the story of another proud afternoon for Sammy Donnelly's men.

In their ninth tie of the season, Rebels bridged a gap of 80 positions in league status in impressive style for most of a rainswept afternoon in south Yorkshire.

In the process, they impressed plenty of the locals and gave some anxious moments to a team standing second in Nationwide League Division Three.

But, in the end, it was a player who has performed considerably higher up the football pyramid who used his wily old skills to make the difference.

Former Bolton playmaker Steve Thompson may be woefully short of pace these days but the right foot is as cultured as ever and his unstoppable 20-yard curler into the top corner soothed home nerves on the half-hour.

He was allowed space again ten minutes from time and whipped in the inviting left-wing cross from which Millers' top scorer Darren Garner glanced a perfect header beyond Lee Bray's dive.

Insult

Then came the final insult of the stoppage-time penalty, as Gary Martindale tumbled dramatically over an outstretched leg, then thrashed the ball home from 12 yards.

Referee Keith Hill, who otherwise controlled things well, left a slightly bad taste with that decision, but it didn't stop Worthing taking deserved applause from Millmoor's best gate of the season when the final whistle sounded soon after.

Boss Donnelly, a cafe owner by trade, had enjoyed good natured banter with terrace comedians behind his dugout, who welcomed him with cries of "two cups of tea and a chip butty please, Sammy".

But he looked a lot more serious at the end as he reflected on the afternoon.

The Rebels boss said: "I thought we could get the replay in the second half. We went at them and Ben Carrington and Simon Funnell caused them all sorts of problems.

"We could have settled for

1-0 but I like to win games and that's why I put on an extra striker in the second half.

"The scoreline flatters Rotherham without a shadow of a doubt. It was important to entertain our supporters who paid to come up here and I'm sure we did that.

"I've always respected my players but to see them put up a performance against a side second in Division Three was tremendous."

Donnelly desrcibed that last minute spot kick as "a joke" while his opposite number Ronnie Moore admitted: "It was a bit of Swan Lake by Marty."

The Rotherham boss added: "Three-nil flatters us. They played a lot of football and full credit to them.

"Sammy's got an excellent side there and it's been a hell of a cup tie. They were very tight at the back and had a couple of livewires up front."

Those two livewires, Funnell and Carrington, really lit things up on 25 minutes when the former's clever back heel allowed Carrington to fire a 20-yard volley which forced a superb save out of big Mike Pollitt in his top corner.

Carrington had earlier dipped an angled volley just wide while second-half efforts in front of Rebels' enthusiastic following saw Mark Knee volley too close to the keeper, Paul Kennett fail to connect properly in front of goal and Lee Weston send a free header wide.

Carrington certainly took the eye but so did veteran defender Lee Cox as he hardly allowed Paul Warne, scorer of Rotherham's winner seven days earlier, a look-in.

His defensive partners were also impressive and, although two Garner shots and a Leo Fortune-West header went narrowly wide, it wasn't until the 88th minute that Bray had a stinging shot to save as he denied Kevin Watson.

Rebels were tiring a bit by then, but skipper Mark Burt said: "I thought we gave a good account of ourselves.

"It was tremendous playing in front of a crowd like that. What must it be like playing in front of 50,000?

"When it was 1-0 we had four or five corners, but we didn't put a good ball into the box.

"We're disappointed with the scoreline, but we enjoyed it. It's a dream to play in this type of football and I'd love to do it every week."

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