What Do Those Stats Tell Us – Millers v Hatters

Rotherham United once again lost a game that they had the majority of possession in and again by only one goal which Luton Town scored on the seventieth minute.

The Millers had sixteen shots at goal against the Hatters at the New York Stadium of which five were on target while our visitors five on target came from ten shots. The success rate in duels was equal while Luton came out better in the aerial duels.

Our accuracy of passing in our opponents half came out at fifty-six per cent while our crossing accuracy was thirty-two per cent. We conceded ten fouls to Luton’s eighteen and both teams had a player booked.

I’m at a bit of a loss tonight. I thought we did well in the first half, took the game to Luton, created chances, ran well, got away from markers. Some good balls went into the box and we had chances to score – but, again, we didn’t. Luton were always going to come out in the second half better than they did the first – it was obvious yet we didn’t have a Plan B to counteract that.

It was a shame to lose Joe Mattock so early in the game and yet we appeared to cope. I thought Matt Crooks had his best game so far this season, I thought Ben Wiles had an great game when he was moved into the left-back position, in fact, I couldn’t fault any of the players in the first half. But we looked a bit jaded in the second half and when Luton scored it seems we went into a bit of a panic, not picking players up, giving them space, giving away silly balls.

Again, I suppose, it comes down to not putting your chances away – we really, really, have to do that – but, on a positive note, we did at least get shots on target tonight.

Put this one behind us and onto the next game – and it won’t be an easy one – Preston are in town.