Paul Warne pinpoints reason behind Rotherham United's defeat to Fleetwood Town

The Millers were in a position to win at half-time after Michael Smith's strike and a Kieran Sadlier penalty overturned Callum Morton' s opener.

But the second half was a 45 minutes to forget as Ged Garner, Danny Andrew and Callum Camps goals saw the Cod Army romp to the three points.

It was a third defeat of the season for Warne's men, but this was different as they were nowhere near their usual standard.

Warne declared his side promotion challengers earlier this week but admitted this was a wake-up call.

“They missed the opportunity to go joint-second and for whatever reason we just didn't seem to have our usual energy and drive,” he said.

“Whether that is a good reality check for all of us, you just can't expect teams to turn up, roll over and for us to tickle their belly.

“If you under perform against anyone you're not going to win and today we didn't perform.”

With Fleetwood in control in the second half, they were clever, slowing down play and disrupting the game.

Warne was disappointed his men fell into that trap.

“This is what we have to get better at, the opposition caused us problems but they slowed the game down and we got sucked into playing really slow,” he said.

“We had players walking to take throw-ins and that just isn't us.

“We didn't play with any drive which isn't us.

“I haven't been critical of the team all season but that was our worst performance of the season.

“The goals we conceded were hugely disappointing but we concede them as a team. My issue is greater than that, I thought we lost a little bit of belief.

“As bad as we were, I thought we created enough chances to get back into the game. The lads can take credit for that but overall it wasn't good enough.”

Rotherham are back in action on Tuesday night when they make the short trip to take take on Lincoln City at Sincil Bank.