Millers need to learn from mistakes on the road

Coming off the back of a positive 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night with ten men, Stubbs is now keen to take their home form on the road, starting with tomorrow’s journey to Ewood Park.

Rotherham are currently unbeaten on home soil with three draws and one win but have shipped goals on the road, losing 3-0 to Aston Villa, 3-0 to Brighton and 4-0 at South Yorkshire rivals Barnsley.

But Stubbs believes that not one of those teams have ripped his side apart and individual errors and lapses of concentration have been more to blame.

He told the Advertiser: “There’s no-one who has completely ripped us open playing really good football. We’ve got to stop contributing to our own downfall.

“It’s because of individual mistakes and not concentrating, that’s why we’ve conceded goals.”

The three away games to date have yielded ten goals against and not one for, but Stubbs is confident that the tide is about to turn.

MANAGER ALAN STUBBS DURING WEDNESDAY'S DRAW WITH FOREST

He said: “You look at the away games up to now, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but if you look at the Villa game we kept them pretty quiet for 20-25 minutes, there’s a lapse in concentration and we lose a goal.

“Right before half time, you have to manage the game and you’re 1-0 down. Worst case scenario, you should be going in to half time 1-0 down. We don’t defend well enough and before you know it it’s 2-0 and it’s a killer blow.

“You go in at half time and the game’s slipping away from you by lapses in concentration and not doing your job.

“Brighton away there was a five minute period and the game’s gone from you because we don’t defend properly, as a team, not as a back four.

“There’s periods within games where you lose a goal but then you stay in the game. The cardinal sin is that you lose another one so quickly and we've conceded two goals in a few games in a short period of time.

“We need to be more resolute, I think the players get that now. They should have got it from the first day but I think they get it event more now. We work a lot on the training ground in terms of shape and organisation because it’s what we’ve needed to do.

“We’ll keep doing that over the coming days, weeks and months until we are better than what we have been.”

Meanwhile, there’s welcome news on the injury front for Stubbs.

Joe Newell will be in the squad after recovering from a bruised toe – albeit with a protective cast on his fractured arm.

Midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey, who was suffering with a slight knee injury, is also back in contention for tomorrow’s trip.

Kirk Broadfoot, Richard Wood and new recruit Dexter Blackstock remain unavailable, the latter needing more training to improve his match fitness.