Millers Head Coach Leam Richardson was proud of his side’s efforts against Premier League, Fulham, but it counted for little in the end as Bobby De Cordova Reid’s first-half goal put his side out of the Emirates FA Cup.
The Millers proved a tough nut to crack for large stages of the Craven Cottage tie while Jordan Hugill had a first-half goal ruled out. However, Rotherham bowed out at the third round stage, thanks to De Cordova Reid’s winner.
“You are always disappointed when you lose. Congratulations to Fulham. We wish them well in the next round. For large parts we contained them. We did the best we could. You could see from the substitutes they brought on, the quality that they have.
“In the second half, we were better and we got up the pitch a little bit. We have then got to have those moments of quality in the final third. We have got to better with the ball at times.
“At the moment, we are built in a certain way. We’ve got to have a foundation to build on and credit to players for how hard they worked against a strong Premier League team.
“You have got to represent yourself well with hard work and endeavour and then we have got to have some quality going forward and when we have those moments to win football games, you have to take them. We scored a goal – although I haven’t seen it back – that was narrowly offside, and in these surroundings, you’ve got to make it count.
“We wanted to be in the game after an hour and then up our levels, which we did. We had a couple of opportunities in the final third that we needed to put quality in the box and get our flair players on the ball further up the pitch, but you have to be respectful of the quality of the opposition and credit to them, they did nullify us in a lot of ways.
“We wanted to create a better quality of chance and take the game further up the pitch but that will come with more time on the training ground to work with each other.”