Interim manager Wayne Carlisle admitted his side were undone by their difficult start as Hull City took the game away from the Millers with a three-goal burst in just 20 minutes.
The Millers were already staring down the barrel of defeat at the MKM Stadium before Grant Hall notched a consolation goal in the second half, but it mattered little in the final reckoning.
“We understand that mistakes happen but when it happens so early in the game, it puts you on the backfoot. For the two goals after that, the disappointing thing for myself is we had a plan for it, and for whatever reason, they got in too easy and we paid the price for just not dealing with it.
“This league is a tough league. It can inflict enough pain on you if you let it and tonight we inflicted some pain on ourselves and it seems to be a habit at the minute. We can’t afford to do that away from home.
“Sometimes in the first half, we did get in some good areas to deliver into the box but the quality was not good enough and the set-pieces were very similar, and that’s something we need to look at and address. Even when we had possession of the ball, we gave it away too cheaply.
“It’s hard with the squad we’ve got at the minute to go in a three-game week. With the energy we get at home, to repeat that again just two/three days later is where the challenge lies for me. That’s where we are as a squad.
“Fred (Onyedinma) came up to me in the warm up and said his hamstring was really tight so we had to make a last-minute change. That did not help us.”