Following tonight’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, Millers manager Paul Warne caught up with the media.
“I think with two long away games in six days, maybe I should have changed the team a bit more and freshened it up a bit more.
“We just didn’t look as sharp or as energetic as I would have liked in the first half. Second half, in fairness we were playing a team that have lost one in 12 and full of confidence with real quality. They were better than us tonight and I can’t be fairer than that.
“In fairness, they didn’t play any better football than us. They worked the line and threw it into the box. Relied on set-pieces and Knockaert can put it on a sixpence. I can’t knock the lads’ effort and I felt we kept going to the very end. In another game we’d have got a draw as we hit the crossbar and Freddie had a really good chance.
“Overall, I had a feeling at half-time and I said to the lads that it had a feeling of us losing 1-0 unless we shook ourselves out of it. That’s on me, not on the lads.
“In fairness, at 1-0 when you start chasing the last ten or 15 minutes, you always will create because they tighten up. The disappointing thing is their goalie must have caught 20 things and I didn’t see a glove laid on him. Then Viktor was getting clattered for us but they were getting the ball out quick and kept breaking.
“You can play undercooked or under-par and get a point. Unfortunately tonight we didn’t get that goal.”
The only goal of the game came in the 67th minute through Ryan Yates, as the Millers hit the crossbar in stoppage-time through Michael Smith.
“I got Hammy in my ear telling me it’s offside,” continued Warne. “It’s a pity we haven’t had VAR this season because we’d have been on the end of a few decisions! But, they were the better team and there’s no disputing that, although you can nick a point when you’re not at your best.
“Sometimes football’s a bit harsh and it being a goal from an offside position makes it a little bit more sour.”
The Millers boss also confirmed captain Richard Wood slipped on the training ground and suffered from a sore groin, ruling him out of Saturday’s visit of Reading. Additionally, Michael Ihiekwe will miss the next two games having picked up his tenth booking of the season.