Referee in boss Matt Taylor's firing line again as penalty decision costs Rotherham United dear against Norwich City

Chiedozie Ogbene can't believe he's being booked. Picture by Dave Poucher

After the injustices of the loss at Burnley in midweek, the Millers were 2-1 down and pressing for an equaliser in the 89th minute when flying attacker Chiedozie Ogbene tumbled in the Canaries box.

Dean Whitestone ignored the appeals for a spot-kick at AESSEAL New York Stadium and booked the Rotherham man for diving.

“It’s a clear penalty," said Taylor. “It seemed to be a very one-sided officiating affair. It feels like a lot is going against us.

"We have spoken enough about referees. I can’t continue to comment. I sound like a stuck record."

Rotherham played well and deserved to take a point from the encounter.

They cancelled out Kenny McLean's opener for Norwich through Ollie Rathbone's shot only to immediately concede again as Aaron Ramsey slotted home.

“The performance was pretty much where it needed to be against another top team," Taylor said "It was a 98 per cent performance. We got back into the match and 30 seconds later they’re ahead again. We are climbing mountains.”

The depleted Millers picked up three more injuries - to Conor Washington, Georgie Kelly and Grant Hall - and Taylor believes the packed fixture list ahead of the World Cup break is responsible for so many of his players being sidelined.

Striker Washington and the man who replaced him, fellow centre-forward Kelly, had to be substituted in the first half and Hall came off after the break.

“It seems everything is against us," the manager said. "It is the toll of the schedule. We can't cope with it. We could offset it if we had a big enough squad but we don’t. It's a cruel world for us at the moment.

“I hope we can put out a competitive team for the two games before the break.”

Norwich head coach Dean Smith said: “It was a good performance. We controlled large parts of the game. I thought we dropped off in the last 15 minutes and allowed them to come on to us a little but we defended really well.

“We knew what the game was going to be about. It’s not an easy place to come to. The fans are on top of you, it can be hostile and we had to deal with that.

“There were some really good bits of play. I felt every time we went forward we caused them problems."