Rotherham United Manager Paul Warne told Radio Sheffield that the changes he made tonight didn’t have the impact he wanted.
‘I thought a couple of the lads looked undercooked on Saturday which is why we made changes for tonight,’ the Millers Boss said. ‘Up to the first goal I didn’t think there was a lot in the game and for us to concede off two set pieces is unheard of. I thought they (Portsmouth) looked a bit brighter than us and we got bullied but I thought we had positivity out wide. But it’s disappointing that we didn’t create anything. They were more aggressive than us and more determined than us and that’s what’s disappointing. Tonight was a low point.
‘We had chances and Jamie Lindsay should have scored but it would just have been a little bit of icing on a really cr*p tasting cake. Tutu was really good, Chieo was good but that’s not enough to win us games.
‘It’s fair that I take the criticism, I pick the team. We are going to have to pick them up and attack the next five games with a bit more vigour. We need to increase our levels from the back to the front if we are going to win games.
‘It’s a bad night and I felt we had to take our punishment at the end.’
I can’t actually see where ‘more vigour’ is going to come from. I’ve already said that I thought we played better than we did on Saturday, though, I don’t think that would have been difficult, but I can’t see where the coaches are going to get anything more out of our players than they are already giving. They’ve looked jaded for a while, some shattered at the end of the game at Wembley, some looking like they are playing through the pain barrier. And, dare I say this, some looking like they want to be anywhere else but on a football pitch.
Asked about Jordi Osei-Tutu who limped off the pitch Warney said, at the time he thought the Arsenal loanee had broken his foot, saying, ‘anywhere else on the pitch that’s a foul, I can’t see how it isn’t a foul, but the ref said it was a ‘meeting of bodies’. He’s now walking with crutches and a boot and I suspect he’s in a bit of trouble’.
Not good news at all.