Assistant Manager disappointed with defeat...
Rotherham United’s Assistant Manager Paul Raynor was left disappointed following the Millers’ narrow 2-1 home defeat to Port Vale.
The Millers, who named the same side that beat Notts County in the FA Cup a week ago went behind early in the second half through Louis Dodds, before former Miller Tom Pope doubled the lead, and the hosts could only reply with a Kieran Agard strike late in the game.
“We’re obviously very disappointed,” said Raynor. “Port Vale will see that they’ve come to a tough place and got three points. I think over the whole 90 minutes but for a late rally when we got the goal we didn’t really perform like we can and didn’t move the ball quick enough to create enough opportunities. They’ve had two chances and taken them which is what good teams do.”
The Millers enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but were unable to punish their opponents in front of another crowd in excess of 10,000 at New York Stadium.
“We had enough possession but I thought we had a lack of options. You’ve got to make it happen, you’ve got to get in those pockets and you’ve got to hurt teams. People aren’t going to come here and play an expansive game, they’ll come like Port Vale did and look to hit us on the break, which full credit to them they did twice and punished us. When you have that much possession you have to use it better than we did.”
Midfielder Michael O’Connor was withdrawn during the first-half and after going into the book for a challenge midway through the half, the Millers’ coaching staff opted to withdraw him to avoid potentially going down to 10 men.
“The referee indicated that he was on his last warning after making a couple of rash challenges. We couldn’t afford to be down to 10 men which is harsh on Michael. We just couldn’t take the risk.”
To listen to the full interview on Millers Player, click here.