Jili Buyabu comes under fire for Rotherham United red card

Number two Steve Agnew pointed the finger of blame at Jili Buyabu in the wake of a Rotherham United defeat, accusing the red-card villain of 'letting his teammates down'.

The attacker was sent off for a wild show of temper in only the fourth minute of today's League Two clash at Swindon Town, leaving the Millers to fight on a man down.

He elbowed opponent Jack Thomson as the pair ran towards a loose ball and will now serve a three-match suspension.

The home side went on to take a 2-0 lead as the visitors' woes in a 2-1 loss were compounded by further dismissals for centre-back Dominic Iorfa and boss Alex Bruce.

"Their player has a little bit of a 'ruffle up' with Jili, but it was nothing you'd expect him to respond to," said Agnew. "He rightly got a red card. It's disappointing for the rest of the squad. There's a real togetherness. A good result would have really started our season again.

"Jili's let his teammates down."

Rotherham kicked off in the drop zone after a lunch-time result went against them and were seeking to return from Wiltshire with a valuable three-point haul.

They battled hard at the County Ground but couldn't overcome their numerical advantage, although Sonny Aljofree came desperately close to an unlikely equaliser in the dying stages.

With Colchester United losing, the Millers climbed a place to 22nd spot.

"It's a difficult game to assess in terms of performance when you lose a player after four minutes," Agnew said. "Tactically, all the work you've done during the week goes out of the window.

"The players were terrific in training and we felt we had a real chance of coming here and getting a positive result. The sending-off for Jili changes everything."

Swindon took the lead close to half-time with a shot that deflected off Iorfa and doubled their advantage after the break with a superb Joe Hungbo free-kick.

By then, Iorfa had received his marching orders for a foul when he was the last defender and so had Bruce who kicked out at an object on the touchline as he protested about the second red.

Denzel Hall reduced the arrears in the 87th minute before Aljofree directed a golden chance an inch wide of a post.

"We were pretty well organised and didn't see much of a threat from Swindon," said Agnew oft the visitors' first-half display. "There were a couple of shots from distance. We thought we'd get to half-time at 0-0 and then make tactical adjustments that could at least get us a point. We then conceded unluckily."

Like Buyabu, Iorfa is also set for a three-game ban.