Were Villa That Much Better Than The Millers?

Rotherham United’s travel woes continued last night at Villa Park when they lost two-nil to Aston Villa, which was their first victory since narrowly beating Yeovil in the EFL Cup in August.

The Millers had much to much respect for their opponents in the first half last night, gave them too much room, let them dictate play and seemed unable to tackle. We looked a million miles away from the team we were on Saturday which beat Derby County. The second half was better but Villa, for me, were always on the front foot without having to break sweat, so to speak. Then I look at the benches and who Villa had the privilege of fetching on. And that’s not to say I have anything at all against any of our players on the bench last night because whoever comes on I believe always gives their all.

Yet there were splashes of good play. We did get some crosses in, we did have chances – when are we going to take those chances? We did give Villa a fright or two and, at one-nil, I think we were still in the game.

And, they tell me, the stats don’t lie – I was shaking my head on Saturday with our possession stats and I did the same last night when they claim that Rotherham had forty per cent possession. Then I got to thinking, well we probably did have the ball more in the second half. Shots at goal show we had just one less than the hosts and we were better in the air and forced the same number of corners.

So, after being a bit down last night my rose coloured specs are back on and I’m looking forward to the trip to Forest on Saturday.