MILLERS ENJOY THEIR DAY AT THE SEASIDE
We deserved a clean sheet, says Warne
ROTHERHAM manager Paul Warne was pleased with his side’s second-half performance as they secured backto-back wins thanks to a gritty victory over high-flying Blackpool.
Second-half goals from Michael Smith and Clark Robertson put the Millers in control at Bloomfield Road, but Armand Gnanduillet’s penalty halved the deficit for Blackpool late on.
Warne was frustrated with his side’s aerial play at both ends of the pitch in the first half – but was pleased with how they bounced back and scored twice to earn the three points.
The result lifts Rotherham to 10th in League One – two points behind Blackpool who are in sixth and the final play-off spot.
Warne said: “I didn’t think we won headers in the first half, I don’t think Smudge (Michael Smith) did and I didn’t think my centre-backs did. I just said ‘look, if you just win your headers and run a bit harder, you give yourself a chance’.
“Our second-half performance was obviously a lot better but, overall, I thought we defended really well. There were some decent balls from Liam Feeney that caused us all sorts of problems.
“My keeper at least deserved a clean sheet, so it’s unfortunate with the penalty late on, but we’ll play better, but to come away and get three points is pleasing.”
A scrappy first half saw Matty Virtue’s low effort on the quarter hour parried to safety by Dan Iversen, who later made a fabulous diving stop from Sean Scannell after 20 minutes, while the woodwork denied Virtue from close range moments later.
Iversen kept Gnanduillet’s
header out before the half hour to preserve the deadlock for the Millers, whose best first-half chance came when Michael Ihiekwe’s header grazed the top of Jak Alnwick’s crossbar.
The Millers took the lead six minutes after the break when Dan Barlaser’s free-kick was hooked back across goal for Smith to prod past Alnwick.
Rotherham made sure of the points when Robertson finished emphatically three minutes from the end, though Gnanduillet’s header clipped the upright before the final whistle.
Gnandulliet grabbed one back with a 98th-minute penalty after Curtis Tilt was fouled.
And Warne was not convinced that it was a penalty and was disappointed not to keep a clean sheet. He added: “It looked a good tackle from where I was. If we’d have lost the game on that, I’d have been devastated and there wasn’t really an appeal.
“But luckily for us, it didn‘t have any effect. It’s disappointing on our goal difference for my goalkeeper and back four.”
Meanwhile, Blackpool boss Simon Grayson felt his side were undone by poor defending at set pieces but, otherwise, did enough to take something from the game.
He said: “We created a lot of good chances and they defended and got the blocks when we were really on top.
“The keeper made some good saves and then we just didn’t defend two balls from set pieces which is frustrating because you know that they’re a threat and they’re a big team. We just didn’t deal with it and that was the difference because up to then, they didn’t look like they were going to score. It gave them a big lift and it’s frustrating because we’ve played far worse than this, this year, and won games.
“The message to the players was that we’ve got a lot of positives from the game – we passed the ball well, created some good chances against one of the teams that are going to be one of the favourites for the division and up there.”