Lee Clark's reaction to Rotherham United's 2-0 defeat against Luton Town
RELEGATED Rotherham United were accused of showing too much fear as they went down to promotion-chasing opposition in the penultimate home match of a miserable campaign.
The Millers trailed 2-0 at the break at AESSEAL New York Stadium tonight and then couldn't breach Luton Town's defence despite an improved performance in the second period.
Kasey Palmer scored twice - in the eighth and 44th minute - for the seventh-placed Hatters who are unbeaten in 10 matches and only three points away from the play-offs, before Sam Nombe, Harry Gray, Jack Holmes and Denzel Hall squandered chances following the interval.
“First half, I thought we played with a little bit of a fear factor,” said boss Lee Clark. “We showed a good Luton team too much respect, both in possession and out of possession.
“We wanted to impose our pressing game on them, but we didn't do that at all and they were allowed to just play passes with ease.
“When we had opportunities to hit them on the break, we didn't play forward, we didn't look forward, we didn't run forward,. Clearly there was a little bit of nervousness, and that could be understandable with some of the youngsters we had in there. Some of them were on only their second or third start.
“The first half was a real waste for us. I've just said to the lads, most of the things you fear in your life don't usually happen, especially on a football field. You shouldn't fear anybody you play against. You should always respect them, but never fear them. We did that too much in the first half.”
Clark - with only 20 fit players at his disposal - had again named teenagers Cohen Lee and James Clarke in his line-up after they'd impressed in last Saturday's 2-0 win at Leyton Orient.
“It's frustrating,” he said. “You want to follow a good result and a good performance away from home and in front of your home fans. They've had an absolutely dreadful season, You want to give them something to shout about. We've got one more opportunity to do it on Saturday (against Reading).
“Second half, we've played a better pressing game and created chances. On another day, we could have scored a goal or two.
“I'm never going to criticise people for missing chances. I'll criticise people for not getting in there. We have to work on our quality in that area.
“But we've created the chances and we've put Luton under a bit of pressure. They still had one or two themselves because they're a good side, but at least we've given them a game in an attacking sense in the second half.”
In the first half, Jamal Baptiste made a perfect connection on a fizzing 25-yarder and was foiled by one of the saves of the season by Josh Keeley.
Palmer was the game's best player up to the break. He opened the scoring with a close-range shot and added to the Hatters' advantage with a header. On both occasions, he was given too much space by Rotherham.
“The first one, we didn't get a press on anywhere around the penalty area, and then he's finished it,” Clark said. “We identified him as a top player when we watched all the footage of their previous games.
“The second goal ... when you concede from a set-play, which is quickly taken and then someone gets the opportunity to cross it free, that's not great from us.”
Luton boss Jack Wilshere said of his side’s 2-0 triumph: “Scoring early helped. We had spoken about that and the players executed it.
“Credit to the backline, they stay focused throughout. There were questions asked of them in the second half. Ideally, we would have scored three or four by that point, but we hadn’t, so we had to defend our box.”