EVANS LAYS INTO SLIPSHOD DUO
Millers manager blames footwear
STEVE Evans slammed both his captain and his goalkeeper after a defensive shambles cost Rotherham victory over bottom-side Blackpool.
Substitute Jordan Bowery looked to have wrapped up three points for Rotherham with a goal 12 minutes from time.
But United skipper Craig Morgan slipped when trying to deal with an over-hit through ball intended for sub Steve Davies, and goalkeeper Adam Collin kicked only air after racing out of his box to sweep up.
That left Davies with a nearopen goal despite defenders trying to get back onto the line, and he buried the ball to earn the draw for Blackpool.
Evans said: “Blackpool were never going to score. I don’t think they’ve had a chance from open play in the second half.
“It’s just a hoof from Jamie O’Hara down the middle, and Craig Morgan slips, like he slipped last week.
“Then Adam Collin – if you’re ten years olds you should come out and deal with that. He’s apologised for it, of course, and he’s a lovely kid, but I don’t want lovely kids, I want winners.
“He should hit it away and it’s a huge error, but the captain should deal that first. He shouldn’t be slipping.
“He slipped last week on the halfway line which led to the Birmingham goal, and he’s slipped again. We’ve told him to sort his footwear out or it’s just going to be an excuse really.
“Blackpool supporters and Lee Clark have had Christmas in November, haven’t they?
“We’ll not see a goal like that in the Football League or the Championship again. That’s how embarrassing that goal is, and it’s two individuals.”
Evans made seven changes to the side that lost to Birmingham last week, including handing debuts to three loanees signed this week, while Blackpool had two debutants in their side.
Most of the action took place in the opening and closing 15 minutes of the game, with Rotherham the brighter side throughout. Middlesbrough loanee Emmanuel Ledesma produced the first chance of note on three minutes, hitting a cross-cum-shot on his unfavoured right foot that Matt Derbyshire couldn’t quite reach.
Another Millers loanee, Leicester’s Tom Lawrence, almost produced a debut goal on 16 minutes, forcing a save from Joe Lewis after bursting into the box.
Bowery finally opened the scoring on 78 minutes, receiving Derbyshire’s lay off and wrongfooting Nyron Nosworthy with a shimmy before finding the bottom corner.
With the Seasiders having barely threatened the goal all game, it seemed like that would be enough to seal victory for Rotherham.
But Morgan and Collin’s mistakes gave Blackpool their goal, and Lewis made great save on the line to keep out Scott Wootton’s injury-time header.
Blackpool boss Clark said: “You think it’s gone when they score that late, but once they did I still thought we’d get a couple of chances.
“The goal’s really poor from our point of view. It’s come from our corner and then we didn’t touch the ball until they score, so we’ve got to learn to get pressure on the ball somewhere before the move starts taking shape.
“So we’re disappointed with that but delighted with the character of the players. Joe’s made a terrific save from the corner which was absolutely brilliant.
“So there’s good things to take and some things that we need to work on. We’ve had a couple of draws in the last two games now – building blocks.
“But we understand that we need to turn these one points into three very, very quickly to give ourselves a chance.”