A penalty either side of the break ensured a point apeice as Rotherham United's Academy drew 1-1 against Bradford City in the Youth Alliance League.

Despite admitting that neither side should have been awarded a spot-kick in identical incidents, Academy manager Garreth Barker believed his side’s performance warranted more than a stalemate.

"We played OK,” he told www.themillers.co.uk.

“We negotiated a way around their shape which was good. There was a little bit missing in terms of quality and service, it was just the final ball. Our goal was a penalty where one of their players pushed our centre forward in the back. I don’t think either was a penalty, to be fair, but we move on.

“We had the better of the game and we had better possession. They had one opportunity – the penalty – in the first 45. We just need to take a little more care and get more quality on the final ball.”

Despite being pleased with much of his side’s play, Barker believes his side need to work on their set-pieces, after they spurned a late chance to snatch the spoils.

“Crosses in have to miss the near post man,” he explained.

“We over-hit a couple that were good opportunities and was characterised by a ball late on that was a quickly taken short free-kick. We had an opportunity to get into the box with quality but it went straight to the goalkeeper.

“We’ve got to realise if the goalkeeper is good, and he’s 6ft 4, then you can’t float balls in on top of him, you’ve got to pull them away and get them into other areas.”

It wasn’t all doom and gloom as the draw keeps the injury-free Millers’ unbeaten run in-tact ahead of the first round of the FA Youth Cup clash with Bottesford Town at AESSEAL New York on Wednesday.

Barker added: “The positive is they haven’t lost the game, and they haven’t lost a game in the league which is terrific and then obviously keeps us in touch with people and there’s no injuries going through into mid-week for the FA Youth Cup which is good so we take those positives.”