Rotherham United boss Paul Warne gave his thoughts after today’s 1-1 draw at home to Tranmere Rovers.
Warne was disappointed to see his side concede an injury-time equaliser, which denied his side all three points at AESSEAL New York Stadium.
“I don’t think we were at our best today,” said Warne. “Obviously, we’ve got massive issues with the goal. That aside, we were poor, for us. It’s a disappointment. I’m not making excuses but I don’t know if we had a bit of a hangover from Wednesday night – not so much after the lord mayor’s show, but we weren’t at our fluent best.
“It didn’t help with Kyle (Vassell) going off after five minutes. We put Chieo on who’s only been at the club two days. But I thought our second half performance was much better. We created enough chances to win the game.
“I understand and think this is what we’ve got to get better at, teams are going to come here – rightly or wrongly – and think we’re one of the favourites to go up. Every team is a tough battle but they come here and really slow the game down. Everything’s a free-kick, everything the ‘keeper does takes forever and every throw-in takes forever. The team, myself, the fans, everyone gets frustrated and we’re going to have to get used to that.
“Our second half performance was a lot better and we probably did enough to win the game. Unfortunately to concede late on is a killer blow.”
Ben Wiles grabbed his first Millers goal in the second half but it was cancelled out in disappointing fashion. An apparent offside and handball went unnoticed, leading to Tranmere’s equaliser.
“There’s no arguing this time it’s an own goal,” said Warne of Wiles’ first goal. “We’re really pleased for him (Ben Wiles). His performance was good and he’s got the man-of-the-match.
“We are going to have games where we don’t play as well but win 1-0. We’d have left here today knowing we hadn’t played our best but have taken the three points.
“I thought our back four were excellent today. They did everything they had to today apart from the last few seconds.”