Millers boss Matt Taylor was disappointed with his side’s display at the bet365 Stadium as they suffered a hefty opening day defeat the hands of Stoke City.
A well-taken brace from Andre Vidigal and goals from Ki-Jana Hoever and Jacob Brown led to a sobering afternoon for the Millers while their woes were compounded when summer signing Cafu was red-carded for two bookable offences.
“The two goals before half-time really killed us. We weren’t good enough in any department in the first half. I can’t stand here and say that. It’s my responsibility. They played through, round and over us too often. It’s always comes down to individual moments but it would be wrong to point the finger at certain positions as collectively we weren’t good enough.
“I’m so frustrated with the second goal because we should have defended the set-piece better than we did. It was too easy with a clean header and a ball across the goal.
“We had to be realistic in what the challenge was in the second half. We asked for pride and a bit more character and personality. We got the goal and we felt better about ourselves. To go down to ten men against a team like Stoke was pretty brutal to watch.
“We can certainly perform better than that. We can talk about a lot of excuses but it does not shy away from our first-half performance.”