Rotherham’s miserable away form plumbed new depths at Hull, who moved back into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs with a 4-1 win at the MKM Stadium.
Tyler Morton, Jaden Philogene and Scott Twine scored within the first 20 minutes to put the game out of reach of the managerless visitors.
Philogene added another soon after the restart against a brittle Rotherham side who remain in deep relegation trouble.
Hull were ruthless, and perhaps a touch fortunate at times in the build-up to their goals, but the Millers were blown away in the first half and have still claimed just one away point all season.
And though Grant Hall headed home a consolation, Rotherham must now reflect upon the worrying statistic of having conceded 11 goals in their last three games on their travels.
Clearly sensing an opportunity against jaded opponents, Hull ripped out of the traps and opened the scoring after five minutes.
Hall’s feeble back-pass put goalkeeper Viktor Johansson in an awful position, from which he did well to stop Liam Delap’s initial shot but the ball fell kindly to Morton, who could not miss.
Rotherham were visibly leggy following their hard-earned draw at home to Leeds on Friday and were further punished on nine minutes.
Dexter Lembikisa made an awful mess of Jason Lokilo’s back-post cross, with the ball striking the defender’s backside and bouncing towards Philogene on the left angle of the six-yard box.
The former Aston Villa playmaker had his back to goal but showed stunning craft with a backheel into the bottom right corner.
Away fans might have been forgiven for thinking that things could not have got any bleaker before the interval.
They were wrong, as Twine added a third after 20 minutes.
Alfie Jones’ hopeful loft from deep was hardly threatening, but Hakeem Odoffin recklessly went to ground to gift Morton another chance on goal.
The excellent Liverpool loan signing had the wherewithal to square to Delap, whose fierce strike was saved by Johansson. The ball was tricking towards the goal line but Twine provided the insurance from a yard out for his first City goal.
Caretaker manager Wayne Carlisle’s half-time debrief would have been even more painful had Hull centre-back Jacob Greaves shown greater composure in a one-on-one situation with Johansson after 40 minutes.
But whatever Carlisle said at the break made not a jot of difference as Philogene scored a second after 48 minutes.
Twine’s initial attempt from Jean Michael Seri’s cute ball was again saved by Johansson, but Philogene snaffled up the rebound from close range.
Hall at least reduced the deficit from a 59th-minute corner following smart interplay between Ollie Rathbone and Arvin Appiah.
But that was as good as it got for Rotherham, who look in desperate need of swift managerial guidance on this evidence.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Campbell gives Sheffield United victory in Steel City derby, Rodriguez strikes late for Burnley
Sheffield United joined leaders Sunderland at the top of the Championship table after a hard-fought 1-0 win against local rivals Sheffield Wednesday.
After a goalless first half, Tyrese Campbell latched onto a pass from Callum O'Hare and slotted past Wednesday goalkeeper James Beadle for the winner five minutes into the second period.
This was the Blades' sixth consecutive clean sheet at Bramall Lane and their fourth straight win home or away, and sees them go level with Sunderland on 31 points from 15 matches.
Meanwhile, Burnley are four points behind the top two after they snatched a last-gasp 1-0 victory against visitors Swansea City.
Jay Rodriguez's stoppage-time penalty secured the points for the Clarets at Turf Moor, ending their four-match winless run and climbing to fourth in the table.
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