Boss Matt Taylor faces up to "unforgivable" Rotherham United defending at Watford

The drop-zone Millers have taken only one point from eight matches on their Championship travels and yesterday at Vicarage Road they conceded twice in the first half and three times after the interval to suffer their biggest league loss of the season.

Following the 5-0 reverse which has seen his job come under increasing pressure, Taylor said: "We haven't defended away from home at any stage this season."

To compound their woes, Rotherham, now without a match for a fortnight because of the international break, saw Sam Clucas, Cafu and Daniel Ayala suffer injuries.

They finished the match with ten men when Cafu was forced to leave the field after all the substitutions had been made.

Taylor, who had switched his team's formation from 4-3-3- to 3-5-2, thought his side were competitive up to the break but said poor pieces of defending gave Watford two goals, one of which was a hammer blow on the stroke of half-time.

“It comes down to individual moments of pride, of skill, of real will and we were second best in a couple of moments,” he said. “Unfortunately, those moments turned into huge aspects of the game.

“The fans must think I'm talking b*llocks but we were in the game in the first half. Then Watford went bang, bang. The ease, the manner, in which those goals went in is unforgivable. It just can't happen. My worry is that players I believe in can be capable of those moments.”

Right-back Dexter Lembikisa was at fault and the boss also questioned his centre-half department.

“In the second half, it deteriorated into us chasing the game with the bodies we had left on the pitch,” Taylor said. “It was brutal to watch. There was naivety and mistakes in the group.”

The setback left the Millers in 22nd spot, four points shy of fourth-bottom Huddersfield Town.