Alan Stubbs post Morecambe...
Rotherham United boss Alan Stubbs admits he was disappointed with a number of players who failed to stake a claim for their place in the first team during the 5-4 defeat to Morecambe in the opening round of the EFL Cup.The Millers boss explained that it was hard to stand by elements of his team’s performance in the wake of the cup tie at AESSEAL New York Stadium and admitted they were largely the makers of their own downfall.
“I'll defend the players to the hilt, but I can't defend the undefendable,” he explained.
“I had to make four or five [changes] that were forced upon me. But then the lads get an opportunity and tonight they've not taken it.
“I thought it was a night where we contributed significantly to the goals that we conceded. If anything we shot ourselves in the foot.”
The Millers did manage to edge their noses in front in the tie and looked to have won it when Anthony Forde made it 3-2 late on, but a Morecambe equaliser sent the game into extra time.
The game ended with nine goals in total, five of which were in the hosts’ goal, leaving boss Alan Stubbs frustrated with the simplicity with the nature in which they were conceded.
“If you look at the goals you don't need to be a football coach to identify what's gone wrong,” he added.
“We get ourselves into a winning position and we make another silly mistake.
“It was a strange game and a game that i'm not normal accustomed to and i don't want to become accustomed to and the players need to learn very quickly.
“They are basic errors like not dealing with straight forward balls.
“You have to give Morecambe credit and I don't want to take anything away from them but the manner of our goals was not good enough.
"You can't dress it up, you can't afford to score four and concede five, it's hard enough as it is. We need to do better, it's pretty simple and you don't need me to stand here and explain. It's pretty straight forward and they were very basic errors.”
The Millers boss did manage to afford playing time to new signing Kelvin Wilson who donned the red and white shirt for the first time and he is confident that the defender will benefit from the exposure to some game time.
“It was always intended to try and get 45 minutes into Kelvin,” Stubbs explained.
“He needs minutes and he needs game time and with that will come sharpness and he'll be the first to say that. He'll come on for that game because he didn't feel sharp at all."