'Humbled' rival boss issues apology following Rotherham United's seven-up cup rout

The League One Millers turned a 3-2 half-time lead into a 7-2 romp against a young team from the division below at the rain-lashed Peninsula Stadium to progress to the last 16 of the competition.

Robinson described some of his side's defending and finishing as ”horrific” but said there were extenuating circumstances as the visitors hit the target on seven occasions for the first time on their travels in 52 years.

“Our team was littered with players who weren't match-ready,” he said. “It was a decision I made – nobody else. I take the blame. I take the responsibility for every result.

“It's important that when we have nights like tonight we step up and apologise. We know it wasn't good enough. But I think we have very, very good reasons for that.

“For me, it's a reflection moment, it's a humbling moment. We'll just have to take it on the chin and just roll on to the next one.”

The head coach made ten changes after last weekend's win over Crawley Town had pushed Salford into seventh spot in the fourth tier and rested key men, with this Saturday's FA Cup second-round clash with Leyton Orient in mind.

“It was a horrific result,” Robinson said. “You look at the first half, with some of the territorial dominance that we had and some of the opportunities that we had, and our finishing was horrific. We missed so many chances. Our choice of final pass when we entered the final third wasn't good enough.”

He praised the quality of Rotherham – who had eight changes and included a number of young players in their squad themselves – after a Josh Benson hat-trick and goals from Josh Ayres, James Clarke, Dan Gore and Dean Gardner had proved too much for City.

“They are a very good League One one team who were not long ago in the championship,” he said. “They're bringing on Joe Rafferty, Reece James, Joe Powell, Dan Gore. These are top League One/ low Championship players.

“They had the advantage of not playing this weekend (the Millers are out of the FA Cup). They were able to give some of their senior players more minutes. We couldn't do that, we had to play around with it.”

The highlight of the contest was a David-Beckham-esque lob from close to the halfway line by Benson early in the second half that put Rotherham 4-2 in front.

“It was horrific defending for the goal they scored from long distance,” Robinson said. ”You look at the goals that we've conceded of late and none of them are like that.

“Our shape hasn't conceded goals. Our shape tonight has conceded goals. And that's the bit, as a coach, I'm furious with.”