"BACK to earth with a bang," was skipper Paul Wanless' desperately disappointed reaction after Cambridge United's Worthington Cup heroes were cut down to third division size by Rotherham. But it was hardly that dramatic as his team's unbeaten run petered out in a dismal Millmoor muddle.

Manager Roy McFarland conjured up a bizarre image when he tried to explain the deterioration: "We left our legs at Watford." But it accurately summed up United's immobility as the Yorkshire team's passing game went on around them and too often past them.

But for a couple of superb saves from goalkeeper Arjan Van Heusden they would have been out of contention by half time. A brief flurry after the break raised a hope or two, only for Rotherham to dash them by taking advantage of slack and sluggish defending to score twice in seven minutes in the last quarter of the match.

But what really depressed the manager, and the fans behind the goal United were attacking in the second half, was that they failed to take a late double chance that might just have sparked the kind of thrilling finish which salvaged an astonishing point in last season's match for Rotherham.

With almost his first touch of the ball in the 85th minute substitute David Preece floated a pass to John Taylor, who nodded the ball into the path of Michael Kyd. But with the entire goal to aim at from six yards the striker managed to aim a header against the left hand post.

All did not seem lost because as Kyd ran for the rebound he was brought down by Jason White for a penalty. Martin Butler, successful from the spot against Torquay and Watford hit a similar shot, low to the keeper's left, but this time not with quite the same force and direction, allowing goalkeeper Mike Pollitt to follow up his penalty save a week earlier at Leyton Orient.

"I think the keeper did his homework, and knew which way to go," said McFarland. "But really Michael Kyd should have scored from that close in. He's a bit distraught about it."

Wanless was scarcely any happier. "You can't expect anything if you just don't play," he said. "We had six or seven minutes at the start of the game then faded right out. It was awful."

He tried, as ever, but like so many of his team-mates looked leg-weary. Play-maker Alex Russell never managed to exert any authority in the match, and Trevor Benjamin, the saviour when things were going wrong against Swansea, was not able to create his usual mayhem down the left flank. That left Butler to chase hopeless long balls up front, knowing that if he caught one the midfield would not be along in time to put together a meaningful move.

At the back the mental tiredness hanging over from an exhilarating night at Watford was equally evident as strikers Jason White and Lee Glover, with the full-backs in support, found gaps to exploit. White slipped through in the ninth minute but was denied by Van Heusden, who rushed out to block an angled drive with his knees.

Glover broke clear in the 28th, and again the big Dutchman saved his side by blocking the ball away for a corner. A tame header by Andy Duncan into the keeper's hands after an eighth minute corner was United's only goal attempt of the first half.

Kyd's well-struck 15 yarder, forced Pollitt into more serious action as United stirred themselves for 10 minutes after the restart, but they could not maintain the pressure, and the game slipped into scrappy stalemate.

It was a match that Cambridge United knew could shape their entire season, an early test of how this young team, with heaped praise on their shoulders, could cope with an early season high tempo match. This time however, unlike Watford in midweek, the players produced a numb, lifeless and half hearted performance, which left every United fan cold with fear that once again, this could be a season of inconsistency.

The scene of the last week would not look out of place in a Hitchcock movie, with the United team playing the part of the deranged Schizophrenic. A team who only four days earlier produced a performance from the top draw, looked flat footed at the back, weak in midfield and with the exception of the exceptional Martin Butler, ineffective up front against what is surely just another run of the mill division three side.

This time it was United who went in at half time wondering how they were still in the game. Rotherham had battered United goal for the first 45 minutes and had they a striker who knew where the goal was we could easily have been two or three goals down. However, we found ourselves still in the game and started the second half reasonably brightly with Wanless squandering two very good opportunities in the 47 and 52 minutes respectively to put the U's in the lead.

This was almost the last sight any United player would see of the Rotherham goal until the last 5 minutes, which by then would see United two goals down due to diabolical, Sunday league standard defending. The always dangerous Justin White, so many times the scourge of United fans, broke the deadlock on 72 minutes as he coolly strode through the United defence like milk through a baby, and chipped over the advancing Van Heusden.

The second goal was one you would expect to see from a third division game, but I hoped we had seen the last of it at Cambridge United. We were given three, four and possibly even five chances to clear the ball away from the 18 yard area but on each occasion failed to do so, resulting in Lee Glover passing the ball into the bottom corner of the net, sending the Rotherham fans into delirium and the Cambridge fans into a state of mental disorder.

It wasn't until the last five minutes, after their introduction of David Preece, John Taylor and Neil Mustoe, that Cambridge looked likely to score a goal. Replacing the unusually ineffective Benjamin, Taylor single handled did more up front than the rest of the team had done all match. His ability to hold up the ball and spot the runs of Butler lead to a 90min penalty for the U's.

Martin Butler took a poor penalty, and the rebound, which should have been buried by Kyd, was instead put over the top. This summed up our day really; it wasn't going to be ours.

Michael Kyd was an ineffective, immobile and uninterested liability whose days at United will surely be numbered if he continues to perform at this low standard. We all know what he, and the rest of the team can do, which is what make brittle and lacklustre performances such as today so hard to swallow.

It's now that the resolve of the team will be put to the test, we have got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and get on with getting out of this nightmare division. Everyone loses games in a season, it was just the way in which we did it which was particularly depressing.

All rather depressing really, a real reality shock after our glorious win at Watford. I suppose this match has highlighted why Cambridge United will in fact struggle to get out of the division as with the likes of Southend, Plymouth, Rotherham, Brentford and even P*sh likely to be up there, we simply can't afford to throw points away as we have done today. We must treat each game as it comes and give 100% on each and every occasion if we are to stand any chance at all this year.

A great time for the Mighty U's to have a nightmare, when I'm sharing the sponsors box with Rotherham's vice-presidents.

Before the match started ... after beers, bucks fizz and buffet ... the Rotherham guys were making excuses about their "horrendous" injury problems. However, looking at the program there was only one change from their previous league matches!

Cambridge started pretty brightly and dominated the first 10-15 minutes and won several corners and long throws. Unfortunately things quickly went downhill from there with our only tactic being to hoof the ball out of defence or when midfield wasn't bypassed to give the ball away immediately. I bumped into Shaggy and asked why we adopted that tactic. He responded by saying that it wasn't what was planned and seemed just as annoyed about the transformation to this approach as we were.

The only points to note in the first half were a couple of good saves from "Ice" and a booking for a late Jamie Campbell challenge .... he should have been sent off, at least that's what the Millers fans thought, but then again they seemed to over-react to every challenge and weren't too happy when I accused one of their players of play-acting !!

The second half was far better, at least as a spectacle as Roy, Shaggy and Preecy must have slaughtered the players for their performance. We were unlucky not to take the lead when their keeper pulled off a good finger-tip save to deny Kyddos placed shot towards the top corner ... and I guess that this was the turning point of the match. After 70 mins a long clearance from the keeper was flicked on by .... Joseph, then flicked on again by .... Duncan, leaving donkey Jason White to score past Ice who got a hand to the shot but was unlucky that it had enough power to reach the net.

The second goal was a comedy of errors too with both Duncan and Mustoe loosing their footing when a challenge looked easier.

Benjamin was booked (in between the goals I think) for a pretty tame challenge and was substituted shortly afterwards.

We had a great chance to pull one back when following a flick-on (Shaggy ?), Kyddo was left with a free-header into an empty net and hit the post. He went after the re-bound and was brought down PENALTY. First chance for me to jump around, only to be severely embarrased (and hounded) when a poor penalty was well saved and the re-bound put over the bar.

Their keeper won the man of the match award by a wide margin .. they even let me have a vote !! Usually this points to a dominance from the opposition but in this case it was due to the good save and penalty miss.

Overall a pretty poor game, where we made Rotherham look better than they really were, was this really the same team that outplayed Watford only four days previously? Basically we had too many players having an off-day with Andy Duncan having, probably, his worst game since joining United.

Van Heusden 7, Chenery 8, Ashbee 5, Duncan 5, Joseph 6, Campbell 5, Wanless 6, Benjamin 6, Butler 6, Kyd 7, Russell 5

This fixture last season saw Cambridge United leading 2-0 after 90 minutes but somehow allowing Rotherham two late goals to share the points. Roy McFarland was utterly furious with his players afterwards and for the only time in his Cambridge United career he refused to talk to the media and instead stormed onto the team coach to await his sorry players. Everyone connected with United was hoping to avoid more of the same at this venue this season, but today's outcome was much worse.

United were unchanged to face the League's top scorers in the sunshine at Millmoor. For Rotherham, Vance Warner was included after recovering from a hamstring strain but central defensive pair Alan Knill and Neil Richardson missed out.

On a pitch which was judged to be the best in the division last season, United started brightly and dominated the opening 15 minutes without really threatening to score, before Rotherham stepped up a gear and took over. Arjan Van Heusden saved with his legs from Jason White but United's only on-target effort of the half came from an Alex Russell corner when defender Andy Duncan headed at the keeper. For the home side White had several good chances and Arjan Van Heusden had to make two excellent saves to deny him. White also had a clearly offside 'goal' disallowed in the 22nd minute.

The U's defence was looking a little flat-footed, possibly suffering the after effects of Tuesday night's efforts, while still managing to resist the Rotherham pressure. The most worrying aspects of the half were the way the defence resorted to the long hoof forward, bypassing midfield, and the way the midfield gave the ball away when they did get possession. At half-time it was clear Roy McFarland would have words to say in an effort to lift his team. Half-time 0-0.

United looked brighter after the break but the standard of play improved little in a dour and unexciting second half, and there were few real chances at either end. Nine minutes in, some good work by Martin Butler set up Michael Kyd but Mike Pollitt did well to tip the ball over. On 67 minutes John Taylor replaced the fired-up Trevor Benjamin, after the big striker had collected several warnings and finally a yellow card.

Five minutes later a long clearance from Pollitt caused confusion in the United defence. First Joseph and Duncan conspired to head the ball into the danger area, then Lee Glover flicked the ball on to White and he scored from the edge of the box, despite Van Heusden getting a hand to the ball.

Neil Mustoe replaced Ian Ashbee on 78 minutes but a minute later another lapse saw the defence caught in possession as they failed to clear the ball after a corner. White saw his shot blocked but fed a low ball through to Lee Glover and last season's top scorer had plenty of time to choose his spot and increase the Millers' lead.

As if that wasn't bad enough a chance to close the gap from the penalty spot in the 85th minute went begging. A corner from late substitute David Preece was nodded on by John Taylor to Michael Kyd who saw his effort hit the post, but as he chased the rebound he was brought down in the box by that man White.

Proof that it wasn't to be United's day came when Martin Butler, who has already struck twice from the spot this season, stepped up to take the kick but saw his effort comfortably blocked by Pollitt. Kyd arrived in the box at speed but hammered the rebound over the bar, denying United the chance to launch a late recovery like Rotherham's last season. It was Pollit's second penalty save in successive games and ensured his side stayed at the top of the table while United slumped to eighth.