MANAGER After witnessing the end of his winning streak as manager of Rotherham United this afternoon, Matt Hamshaw refused to offer an explanation.
At Edgeley Park, League One promotion contenders Stockport County defeated the mid-table Millers following three consecutive victories under their new manager.
Hamshaw chose not to blame the 3-1 loss on either of the two circumstances, even though it was Rotherham’s fourth game in 12 days and six of their senior players were sidelined.
“It’s easy to talk about the amount of games and the injuries but I’m not going to,” he said. “In moments in the second half, we just had to be a little bit better than we were.
“First half, we started really well. I spoke to the players at half-time because I thought we got a little bit complacent on some of the things we’d spoken about and stopped doing them. We knew that, second half, there would be a Stockport reaction.”
The Millers took an early lead with a Mallik Wilks header but were pegged back before the break when Jack Diamond scored from 20-plus yards and then fell further behind after the interval to goals from Brad Hills and Kyle Wootton.
The big turning point came when Hamshaw’s men were 2-1 down and Devon referee Lee Swabey rejected appeals for a spot-kick when Wilks tumbled in the box.
Wotton’s low shot into the net sealed the victory for the home team as Stockport went straight down to the other end.
“I think it should have been 2-2 and a penalty,” Hamshaw remarked. The authorities have informed me that not every collision in the box results in a penalty.
“We had Sam Nombe waiting for a tap-in and a slide across from Mallik, even if it isn’t.”
“It’s difficult for me to comment on other decisions because I’d be here for three days,” the manager said, expressing his opinion that the referee performed poorly.
“It is what it is. You’re on the right side of things sometimes and not other times.
With only one midfield player, two young centre halves, and three centre forwards on the bench, Rotherham was forced to chase the game after falling behind 3-1.
As a team, we became somewhat dispersed; by the way, that’s my fault,” he remarked. We started with five center-forwards, hardly no midfield, and five defenders. You are unable to maintain possession and return to such games.
The manager now has a week to prepare his team for Mansfield Town’s visit on Good Friday.
