Gaffer disappointed with performance...
Rotherham United manager Steve Evans was disappointed with his side’s performance as a one-goal advantage was overturned in the second period to eliminate them from the FA Cup.
Lee Frecklington capitalised on a mistake in the Rochdale defence early in the game to put the Millers ahead, but close-range goals from Matthew Lund and Peter Vincenti ensured the Lancashire club would progress into round three.
“I’m upset,” Steve Evans said afterwards. “We never really got going at any stage and despite that we capitalised on an error and could have gone in 3-0 up at half-time from a couple more chances, one being where Kieran’s nicked the ball off the defender.”
The Millers had the better of the first period, and scoreline aside will have certainly gone in at half-time the happier. However, an early leveller by Lund, and Vincenti’s late tap-in came either side of a red card for Michael Tidser, combining to see the Millers fighting on just two fronts now.
“In the second-half we’ve tried to get a bit of play going but we’ve struggled to do so, and obviously a few people had an off day which you can’t legislate for but we committed two cardinal sins including a ball into our box that you’d expect a 10 year-old to head and then we get caught at the far post which we’ve seen a few times at New York Stadium this season. It was all hard to endure in that second-half though. I’m not blaming the referee for us going out of the cup today, they (Rochdale) have scored two goals and we’ve scored one.”
Matt Tubbs becoming the latest casualty, and as a result the home side were unable to fill their quota of substitutes with just three outfield players (plus Scott Shearer) available on the sidelines, and the Millers boss said it was unfair to compare it to the stunning victory over Gillingham last week.
“It’s a different team to last week, so we can’t compare the performances; it would be like comparing apples and oranges so it’s not right to draw comparisons to last week’s results. We lost Rob Milsom, Michael O’Connor and then Matt Tubbs this morning so it was hard but we will get back onto the training ground and go to Fleetwood on Tuesday.”