Rotherham boss Paul Warne reflected on his side’s 1-0 defeat at home to Coventry City this evening.
The Millers came unstuck from a set-piece midway through the second half, and struggled to create chances at the other end.
“I’m not going to sugar-coat it, I thought we were poor,” said Warne. “We lost a lot of battles. I think we were beaten up and that’s not being disrespectful to Coventry.
“They caused us all sorts of problems. If it wasn’t for my goalkeeper, we could have been two or three down at half time. We might have defended a little bit better in the second half but we didn’t have the cutting edge going forward. We just didn’t create enough goal-scoring opportunities to get anything from the game.
“I have no complaints with the result at all, we just have to put this game behind us – and quick – and try and repair, recover, and put a smile on our faces on Sunday which is another tough game.
“We tried to shuffle the pack but, emotionally, it takes a lot out of you (Tuesday night v QPR). I think it was more psychological than physical. But we still should play better than that. There was a few decisions made by the players, whether it’s fatigue or not I don’t know. It just wasn’t really like us.
“We’ve got enough games to, hopefully, get ourselves out of it but our level of performance has to be better than that. I don’t think that’s synonymous with our level of effort this year, and everyone has seen that on T.V, which is disappointing.
“I just thought, physically, we didn’t compete. We didn’t have many first contacts on our set-pieces. I said to them at half time ‘don’t lose this game on a set-piece’ which is ironic. We gave away a needless free-kick, he virtually has a free header in the middle of our six-yard box. Maybe it is mental fatigue but I don’t think we were bright on the ball tonight.
“We had to make the subs because a little bit of me was thinking about the next game. But we could be out there now against nobody and we might not score.
“We tried everything we could but everything we nearly asked of Coventry, they more than answered.”
Warne reserved praise for his goalkeeper, Viktor Johansson, who made several incredible saves in the first half.
“Viktor was excellent tonight,” said Warne. “It could have been 3-1 at half time because we hit the post. Viktor was brave and he hurt his shoulder. He earned his money tonight and he got let down, the performance in front of him wasn’t the Rotherham we know.
“I just don’t think that was us tonight. I’m hoping to see a response on Sunday and if we get a result on Sunday, we’ll come away feeling good about ourselves.”