Blackpool 1 Rotherham United 2: Paul Warne likes to be beside the seaside as Millers make waves

There is just something about Rotherham United boss Paul Warne's half-time team-talks at Blackpool that hit the right note.
Paul WarnePaul Warne
Paul Warne

Almost two years ago Warne delivered an intervention at the interval that is widely credited as saving his job as on a horror run of form and trailing 1-0, he changed things around and watched his side go on to a 2-1 win.

They did not lose again until March, a run that led them to play-off glory and promotion to the Championship.

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Things were not as drastic at Bloomfield Road on Saturday, but Warne had seen his Millers side outplayed by the Seasiders and knew they were lucky to be level.

The boss, who made his Football League debut as a player there, said his piece and it again had the desired effect as his men went on to produce another 2-1 victory.

Michael Smith and Clark Robertson goals from set-pieces put them on the road to the three points, with Armand Gnanduillet's penalty coming far too late to have an impact for Blackpool.

The result does not have the implications of that 2-1 win two seasons ago, but Warne will hope it has a similar impact as they are now looking upwardly mobile in the table.

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“Blackpool were causing us all sorts of problems in the first half and I openly admit that, the boss said.

“I’d have taken 0-0 at half-time because they were the better team.

“At half-time, I asked for more movement up front and try and get behind them, like they were doing to us in pulling our full-backs out of position. I didn’t think we won headers in the first half, neither upfront or defensively.

“I just said, ‘Look, if you just win your headers and run a bit harder, you give yourself a chance’.

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“Our second-half performance was obviously a lot better, but overall I thought we defended really well.”

The Millers had goalkeeper Daniel Iversen to thank for that first-half escape as he produced good stops from Sean Scannell, Matty Virtue and Gnanduillet.

But Warne's team-talk took only six minutes to do the trick as Smith bundled home Robertson's knock down.

Robertson, a former Blackpool player who was only playing because of an injury to Joe Mattock in the warm-up scored the decisive second when he sweetly converted from another set-piece.

There were nine minutes of injury time and in the last of them Gnanduillet converted from the spot after a foul on Curtis Tilt, but it did not spoil the visitors' afternoon.