REACTION: Warne sees reasons for optimism

PAUL Warne said Rotherham United's game plan at Reading was the right one despite the match ending in another defeat.
Paul Warne and Reading boss Jaap Stam on the touchlinePaul Warne and Reading boss Jaap Stam on the touchline
Paul Warne and Reading boss Jaap Stam on the touchline

Warne went with a 4-3-3 against the promotion chasers at the Madejski Stadium yesterday and saw the plan work well for more than an hour.

Tom Adeyemi's first-half strike had the Millers on course for their first win at Reading in 40 years until the visitors turned the match around to win 2-1.

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Warne said: "I thought we played well and we were organised and looked a threat on set pieces. We looked pretty comfortable in a game which, prior to coming here, you wouldn't have thought we would have.

"I was happy with the way the first half went, I was happy with the way 15 minutes of the second half went.

"Their equaliser was pretty special, it took something like that to break us down. They scored another one and then in the last eight or nine minutes we were in the ascendancy a little bit when we went 4-4-2.

"I know some people might say we should have started like that but if we did that I think we would have been cut apart.

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"One complaint is that when we won the ball back we didn't retain it well enough. When you win the ball, you have to keep it and put your foot back in the game and I didn't think we did in the second half."

The defeat was Rotherham's 21st in 22 games on the road this term and leaves them with just one more chance — at Preston next week — to put an away win on the board.

After a last-gasp defeat at Wigan, Friday's draw with Birmingham and yesterday's performance, Warne sees cause for optimism before he gets on with the job of reshaping his relegated squad ready for a crack at League One.

He added: "We didn't deserve to lose at Wigan, we were the better team against Birmingham and could have won comfortably and went toe to toe with Reading.

"The players have nothing to play for but pride but they aren't giving up."

Rotherham are next in action at home to Ipswich on Saturday (3pm).