Warne post-Mansfield
Rotherham United boss Paul Warne spoke to iFollow Millers after his side’s final pre-season match of the season.
The Millers enjoyed a tough final runout at Mansfield with the Stags edging a close encounter 2-1.
“The second-half performance was excellent,” said Warne. “I don’t think they had a corner or a shot on target, second-half. We made changes to give everyone a fair chance of winning a shirt for Brentford. A lot of people can come out with a lot of credit.
“I like to win, but it wasn’t the case today. I can’t fault their effort and we kept knocking on the door. On another day we might have won the game but Mansfield are a good side. I knew it would be a difficult game. I think, in fairness, we were the better team but the scoreline doesn’t reflect that.
“I made a lot of changes today and gave the lads who didn’t start the other night a chance to try and grab a shirt off some of the others.”
A goal from Sean Raggett cancelled out Mansfield’s opener from Craig Davies before the hosts regained the lead through Tyler Walker before half-time. But Warne was most pleased to see Jamie Proctor back in action, as were the travelling 466 Millers fans.
“It was great to have Proctor back on the pitch,” added Warne. “I thought he looked pretty good, to be fair. He’s still a little bit rusty but he was a definite handful, as was Smithy when he was on the pitch. Bally looked bright, Joe Mattock was excellent. I had to end the game with Semi and Wilesy in midfield.
“I thought Proctor’s header was going in and then he chipped the ‘keeper, if it had gone in the bench would have gone ballistic for him. It was a good day and I’m not disappointed at all. We’ll look at the game and show the lads where they went wrong but we tried to win the ball back and that’s all we can ask for.”