Paul Warne post-Aston Villa...
Millers boss Paul Warne addressed the media following tonight’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.
The visitors overturned the Millers’ lead to secure all three points, but Warne was pleased with his side’s effort.
“I’m just trying to get it through my head,” said Warne. “I thought, first-half, we were excellent. It might sound a stupid thing to say but I don’t think them going down to 10 men helped us. I think we were really organised against the 11 but when it comes a bit more random in the second-half with 10, it sort of caused us more problems, really.
“We came out in the second-half and no-one intends to give a penalty away. Then three of the lads had a chance to put a tackle in and they didn’t. They broke and scored again. So then after that it’s us trying to get a bit of impetus into the game. Their ‘keeper made an amazing save off Joe Newell which I thought was in.
“We had a few near misses. We made our subs and went 4-4-2 which didn’t really help us, unfortunately. We tried to do everything we could to get ourselves back in the game. But, there’s no shame us losing to the in-form side in the league; they’re pretty formidable. They took their goals well and you can’t say it weren’t an exciting game.”
After Marek Rodak denied Tammy Abraham from the spot, Will Vaulks opened the scoring at the other end from a penalty after Tyrone Mings was sent off.
“We try not to let any team play out from the back,” continued Warne. “On goal-kicks we made them go long. We had certain trigger points on the pitch where we would press and that was working really well.
“I thought Smudge was causing them problems and our overall play was really good. Obviously, their manager is really good and he gave them a rallying call at half-time. They came out and won the penalty which gave them a big swing. The two goals gave them a massive boost.”
Villa then held on to see out the game, with Warne’s side pressing hard for an equaliser that almost came.
“We didn’t get to the heights of the first-half, I don’t think,” added Warne.
“The lads were trying and doing everything they could but a bit of Villa quality probably was a bit too much. I thought it was a really exciting game. Both teams were trying to win it and both teams were trying to score goals.
“I said to them after the game, you’re playing Aston Villa and we’ve gone toe-to-toe with them. Just for a couple of instances we might have come away with something.
“The lads can take massive confidence from it. We’ll pick them up again tomorrow and put them in a good spirit for Saturday.”