City let in three goals in 11 minutes to crash to defeat against Rotherham this afternoon.

They conceded more in a dreadful second-half spell than in the previous five league games as the unbeaten run came to an abrupt end.

The first half was almost devoid of incident.

City looked comfortable and James Hanson and Nahki Wells looked a handful without seriously troubling Rotherham's on-loan keeper Rhys Taylor.

Hanson had the only on-target effort of 45 dour minutes with a shot straight at him after latching on to a long ball from Luke Oliver.

Simon Ramsden's broken toe meant a shuffle at the back and Robbie Threlfall returned for his first start since injury.

But the backline, so impressive in recent weeks, had a pretty easy run of it. It took Rotherham 40 minutes before they created a proper chance, Lewis Grabban setting up Danny Schofield for a cross-shot wide.

Schofield forced Jon McLaughlin into his first proper save just before the hour with a powerful drive which the keeper turned away.

Rotherham had looked livelier since half-time and made the breakthrough after 63 minutes, Grabban turning in the loose ball after City failed to deal with a free-kick.

Within four minutes it was 2-0. McLaughlin caught Sam Wood as he burst into the box and Grabban sent him the wrong way with the penalty.

The game was then put firmly beyond them by a speculative strike from sub Brett Williams which deceived McLaughlin, who fumbled it into the net.

Substitute Mark Stewart headed against the post but City were left to rue a second half to forget.