Rotherham United boss Paul Warne praised his side in defeat at the Vitality Stadium after an impressive showing on the road against promotion-chasing Bournemouth was decided by a solitary goal.
Philip Billing’s first-half strike which came as a result of a home counter-attack proved to be the difference between the Millers and the Cherries in a hotly-contested encounter on the South Coast, in which the visitors forged arguably the better of the chances.
Speaking following his team being narrowly edged out on Wednesday night, Warne expressed his pride at his side’s showing, whilst adding the obvious disappointment of coming away from the South Coast without any points to show for their efforts.
"We're hugely disappointed we didn't get a point,” he told www.themillers.co.uk.
"We came here to win. We didn't come here to sit behind the ball. We made attacking subs and we tried to win the game and unfortunately we just fell short, but it wasn't through a lack of effort, desire or commitment.
"For us to lose 1-0 here, I'm disappointed - which shows how far we've come and how proud we are of them.
"I think the lads leave the stadium disappointed that we haven't at least got a point.”
It was a ruthless attack on the break which ultimately cost the Millers, despite Ben Wiles going close in the second half with a sumptuous volley, with substitute Freddie Ladapo also threatening moments after being introduced as a substitute.
Warne admitted that the Millers were aware of the Cherries’ ability on the counter but commended his side for posing their own problems on Asmir Begovic’s goal.
"As soon as they broke, they have so much pace in their team that I knew they'd be a problem on the counter-attack and Billing took his goal well but apart from that, I didn't really feel under any threat in the first half - which is a testament to the lads to come to a top six team,” he continued.
"Second half I thought we were close to scoring and I thought Freddie was going to go down for a penalty but he kept on his feet and unfortunately his shot went over.
"It just probably didn't drop for us. You need luck to win a football game and you need a lot of things, but the effort was there and I cannot knock that.
"We changed the system to a 4-4-2 and then it was the last roll of the dice we put Woody up front for five minutes to see what happened. Unfortunately, it didn't fall for him.
"I thought the lads competed really well and it is testament to them that in the last 10 minutes of the game they were taking forever to take things.”