Steve Evans post Brighton and Hove Albion...
Rotherham United boss Steve Evans could not fault his side’s commitment as they slipped to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of table-topping Brighton and Hove Albion on Tuesday night.
The Millers fell behind when Tomer Hemed guided the Seagulls ahead before Dale Stephens doubled their advantage after the restart.
Second half substitute Jonson Clarke-Harris halved the deficit following his introduction but the Millers couldn’t find an equaliser despite an industrious effort.
Millers boss Steve Evans was left pleased with his team’s performance in spite of defeat, crediting the spirit of their performance on the south coast.
“I can’t fault effort and commitment and passion from the team and every man on the pitch has run until they’ve dropped and there will be a lot of tired players going home because we’ve had two tough away games,” he explained.
“I think in the first half both teams cancelled each other out really and they get a move down the left hand side and we make a mistake where we mark when we gamble and they get the goal.
“We changed the shape a little bit and the personnel so we could get on the ball and we did that.
“I think possibly in the second half we’re the better side and it’s hard to say if you’re a Brighton fan or a neutral but they get a bit fortunate with the second goal because it’s some good defending from Joe Mattock and it gets a little nick but then the boy screams it in with a great strike.
“We get a goal back and we probably huffed and puffed in the last third and got an opportunity to put some balls in the box when we had eight and nine Rotherham shirts in there but the quality of the final ball wasn’t there.”
The Millers introduced three attacking players in the closing stages of the game with Greg Halford, Clarke-Harris and Danny Ward entering the fray to give the visitors another attacking dimension.
“I think at 2-1 we had a lot of the ball and we’d almost pushed five or six up front and I think Chris [Hughton] was really concerned.
“It’s not about top against bottom in this league because everyone says bottom can beat top at any stage but we just need to get a win and get up and running and we’ll get our players in and freshen it up again for Saturday."