REACTION: Warne rues yet more individual mistakes

PAUL Warne and his Rotherham United players head into the international stewing over a "pretty brutal" defeat.

As interim manager, Warne accepted he was open to criticism for the 5-1 thrashing QPR, the 19th defeat in 20 away games.

But having thoroughly prepped the team all week to deal with an in-form side chasing a fifth win in six, he was frustrated to see his plans scuppered by individual mistakes.

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"I thought that we set up well, we started well and I honestly thought we were the better side in the first half but we gave them two goals and you can't legislate for individual errors of that magnitude," he said.

"If you defend like that in the Championship, every mistake is punished. I told a few home truths at half time hoping that would get a reaction but the same individuals had another poor performance in the second half.

“There are only so many times that you can encourage people. I went good cop and bad cop. I told them the truth and that they are better players than that, but they need to show me."

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Warne admitted the scoreline didn't flatter QPR and the only positives he could take were the performances of Jerry Yates, his midfield three and an "outstanding" first half and goal from Joe Newell. He also promised that Norwich City loan man Carlton Morris, introduced late on, would play an active part in the remaining eight games.

"You can tell that our boys are used to losing," added Warne. "I won't say that they threw the towel in but they were ready for the game to end from the 65th minute, which is disappointing because we had a lot of fans come down who wanted to be entertained.

"I was clapping the fans at the end and they were pretty courteous but to be honest if they were throwing stuff I could understand why."

The result left Rotherham 24 points from the Championship safety line with only 24 more to play and doomed to the drop soon after the international break.