Three appeals, no penalties ... Rotherham United boss Paul Warne reacts to the 2-1 defeat against Cardiff City

Millers v Cardiff action. Picture by Dave Poucher

The Millers had three good spot-kick appeals rejected by man in the middle Geoff Eltringham as they slipped to a 2-1 defeat tonight to lose for only the second time in their last seven Championship outings.

The Tyne and Wear official's most glaring error came on the half-hour mark when he failed to spot a blatant shove on home striker Michael Smith.

"I think we were more than deserving of a penalty for a foul on Smudge," Warne said.

"I thought over the course of 95 minutes we didn't deserve to lose."

Rotherham played well in the snow and freezing temperatures at AESSEAL New York Stadium and remain out of the bottom three, although they did use up one of the two games they have in hand on their survival rivals.

Matt Crooks' fourth goal in six games after half-time drew them level after Cardiff's breakaway opener from Sheyi Ojo only for Joe Bennett to head home an 85th-minute Bluebirds winner.

Other Rotherham penalty shouts for a foul on Richard Wood and a handball by old boy Will Vaulks went unheeded by Eltringham. Vaulks was adamant that the ball struck his chest.

“We go through matches of full luck or no luck," Warne said. "We rode our luck on Saturday when we won at Preston North End but I didn't think we had any tonight.

“We got ourselves back in the game and I thought we would go on and win it.

“The lads didn't do much wrong. Cardiff were quite happy to just play off Kieffer (Moore) and just have throw-ins and corners. There wasn't enough 'ball in play' time. To come away with nothing seems a bit harsh.”

Cardiff boss Mick McCarthy said: "All wins are hard-earned. Some just seem to be harder than others because of the nature of the game.

"Conditions weren't great and we had to fight fire with fire with free-kicks, throw-ins and corners.

"We had to play for seconds. It was that kind of a game and I thought the lads handled it really well.

"I am bitterly disappointed with the goal we conceded, but the two goals we got were very good ones."