An even start to the game saw a lot of the play take place in the midfield areas but the game burst to life in the fourteenth minute.

Millers keeper Liam Higginbotham came to the edge of his area to collect the ball in front of centre half Danny Jackson and Fylde's Mark Wane. Higginbotham claimed the ball well but then he crashed into Jackson and spilled the ball at the feet of Wane who stuck it home.

Referee Hilton initially gave the goal, but the eagle-eyed assistant referee flagged prior to the goal being scored for a push by Wane on Jackson and the goal was disallowed.

This was to be Fylde's only real chance of the first half as The Millers grew stronger as the half progressed.

Just after the half hour, good play from midfielder Will Ahern saw him create a goalscoring opportunity for himself and his shot was well saved by keeper Pete Summerfield, the ball then rebounded here, there and everywhere with no player from either side getting any meaningful connection and somehow the ball ended up in the grateful hands of Summerfield.

Five minutes later, the home side did manage to make the crucial breakthrough when a flowing move down the right saw Joe Shaw and Matty Taylor link up brilliantly, Taylor's cross was only partially cleared by a Fylde defender and the ball fell invitingly into the path of Adam Mather who scored with a powerful right foot shot from ten yards.

The start of the second half saw the visitors make two quick attacking substitutions which included the introduction of the League's leading scorer Ritchie Allen who was surprisingly left out of the starting line up. The substitutions did seem to give Fylde more of a cutting edge than in the first half but despite having more of the possession, they found it difficult to break down The Millers defensive unit.

It was the home side who very nearly doubled their advantage in the sixty sixth minute when substitute Scott McGowan broke down the right hand side and squared the ball to an unmarked Garry Kharas. The pass, if anything lacked a little pace, and Kharas had to check his stride a little but he still managed to get a strike on target but he was denied by a good save by Pete Summerfield.

This unfortunately was to be Kharas's last contribution of the game as he was stretchered off after being caught by Fylde skipper Dougie Shaw. There was a significant stoppage as Kharas's leg was immobilised by the physios but this was more precautionary than anything and thankfully the injury does not appear to be as serious as initially thought.

The last ten minutes saw Fylde push forward as they frantically tried to grab the equaliser but centre halves Danny Jackson and Micky Ryan were magnificent and this restricted the visitors to mainly long distance strikes which didn't cause any major problems for Liam Higginbotham in The Millers net.

The injury to Garry Kharas saw referee Hilton play eight additional minutes and when the final whistle finally came, there was great scenes of jubilation both on and off the pitch and the players left the field to a deserved standing ovation from the biggest League crowd at Church Lane this season.

NEW MILLS: Higginbotham, Taylor, Band, Ryan, D Jackson, Ahern, Shaw, Smith ( Matthews ), Kharas ( Bromley ), Moores ( McGowan ), Mather Unused subs - Fidler, S Jackson

Referee: Mr G Hilton. Attendance - 268.

* Next Saturday, The Millers take a break from Premier Division action as they face Division One leaders AFC Liverpool in the second round of the League Cup at Church Lane, kick off 3pm.