'I blame myself' - Paul Warne shoulders responsibility after disappointing Rotherham United defeat

Paul Warne was disappointed with Rotherham United's defeat.

It was in September when the Cod Army came to South Yorkshire and handed the Millers a 4-2 defeat.

But that served as a catalyst for a brilliant run of form which did not see them suffer defeat again in any competition until Boxing Day, propelling them into the thick of a promotion race.

Boss Paul Warne will be keen on the same thing happening again after his side were beaten 1-0 in Saturday’s reverse fixture.

The Millers dominated proceedings on the Fylde Coast but did not create enough and were done by an injury-time sucker-punch as Anthony Pilkington struck from close range in the fifth minute of time added on.

It completed a bad day for Rotherham, not least because they dropped out of the top two in League One.

The club also felt compelled to apologise to Fleetwood after some of their 1500-strong travelling support disrespected a minute’s silence before kick-off, while there were also reports of fans fighting among themselves in the away end.

Warne will be glad to see the back of Fleetwood, but accepts his side did not have the quality to win.

“It’s a difficult one. This is no disrespect to Fleetwood but I thought we were the only team trying to win the game,” he said.

“They were slowing the game down no end and I’m not too sure about the officiating, I thought we were on the wrong end of a couple of decisions.

“We could have taken a chance earlier in the game and didn’t.

“The longer the game goes on, we’re trying to win it and we probably risked things by throwing bodies forward.

“I just didn’t think we created enough clear-cut chances in the second half. We got into really good positions - one versus one out wide - and put crosses into the box but we just didn’t create enough to win the game

“I blame myself, I probably could have been braver with the substitutes, I felt at the time we had pretty good control of the game, without creating a great deal.”

The Millers will hope to kickstart another strong unbeaten run when Lincoln City visit on Tuesday night.