'Blame me, blame the travelling,' says Rotherham United boss Paul Warne after Nottingham Forest setback

After long away trips to Bournemouth and Norwich City in the last week, the Millers looked fatigued as they slipped to their fourth Championship loss in succession to remain in the bottom three.

The boss admitted after Ryan Yates' second-half goal had settled the contest 1-0 at windswept AESSEAL that he wished he'd freshened up his side more.

He made only one change and said: "The players were dead on their feet. I could feel it at half-time. With hindsight, I should have put a few more of the others in."

Warne rued missed opportunities to equalise, with Freddie Ladapo failing to get his shot away in front of an empty goal and Michael Smith hitting the bar with a stoppage-time header.

“We had a couple of chances later on," he said. "On another night one of those goes in, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. We just need to pick up the lads and strap them up because there is another game on Saturday.

"It was a little bit disappointing. The best team won. We just looked jaded really

"Forest had a little bit more guile than us. I thought they played us really well. We weren't winning enough first contacts and their set-pieces were more deadly than ours. They had more stardust than us.

"I felt for the lads because they wanted to perform.”

Forest manager Chris Hughton said: “It was a tough game. It was what we expected. We had to defend in numbers.

“Rotherham are a good side. Nobody has beaten them convincingly and that was the case again. I thought we were the better team but it was a game that could have gone either way.”