We needed Famara’s physical presence from the start at Rotherham

DEAN Holden is always quick to say after a game that he doesn’t get too carried away with a win and similarly doesn’t go over the top after a defeat, but I bet inside he was livid after the showing against a Rotherham side which pretty much dominated the game from the first to last whistle.

I commented in this column about our failure to really go at sides lacking in confidence. Reading, Birmingham and Rotherham were all on poor runs of form (six or seven games without a win) and yet we have been second best in each of those. We start slowly, allow them to get into the game and gain confidence, and then end up on the wrong end of the result.

It’s easy with hindsight but I felt knowing how Rotherham play, and that’s not being disrespectful, that we might have gone with Famara Diedhiou up top instead of Chris Martin.

Famara can be so effective at defending set-pieces and crosses into our box, added to that he got the winner on against Blackburn on Wednesday night, so will have been confident, and we also have to manage a small squad of players.

Of course, the early Rotherham goal didn’t help in terms of us getting at them and exploiting their confidence levels. Sometimes you can overplay and Tomas Kalas, who has been excellent the last few weeks, had an easy pass back to Daniel Bentley but instead opted to turn back out and caught his boots in the turf, resulting in him giving away a soft free-kick. The delivery from Rotherham was good but Callum O’Dowda allowed himself to be gently pushed from behind and the Millers opened the scoring. We really do lack physical presence in the side. When Famara is not on the pitch, we only really have Kalas. It’s a part of their game that the likes of Zak Vyner, Tyreeq Bakinson and others have to work on.

We didn’t deserve anything out of the first half but at 1-0 we could have got back into it, only to then concede another poor goal before the break. Bakinson didn’t win his challenge, and Antoine Semenyo found himself in the left-back position and he allowed a cross into the box too easily. Vyner got outmuscled by Smith and we were two down.

The way we have bounced back after defeats recently has been good but the lack of consistency in performance and results is a worry and may, ultimately, stop us from achieving this season’s goal.