Roundwood exile as Jili Buyabu pays price for Rotherham United sending-off
"He needs to regain the trust of myself and his teammates."
Red-card villain Jili Buyabu has been ordered to stay away from Rotherham United's training ground after the senseless sending-off that cost the club any chance of victory at the weekend.
Boss Alex Bruce revealed the loan attacker's temporary exile following tonight's 1-0 home loss against Newcastle United Under-21s that saw the Millers exit the Jersey Mike's Trophy at the group stage.
Buyabu, dismissed for elbowing an opponent in the fourth minute of a 2-1 League Two defeat at Swindon Town last Saturday, won't be allowed to rejoin his teammates until later this week.
He could have played in tonight's tie in front of less than 1,000 fans at AESSEAL New York Stadium but was snubbed by head coach Bruce.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise why he's not been involved," the head coach said. "I accept people make mistakes, I don't accept certain other things. When he comes back into the group, he needs to show an appetite to wear the shirt in the right way. On Saturday, he didn't do that
"Is it a punishment? It's a little bit of that. We need to see a reaction from him, and he needs to regain the trust of myself and his teammates."
The Advertiser asked if the 23-year-old had shown any contrition, and that was when Bruce spoke of the player's absence from Roundwood in the early part of this week.
"I've not seen him since the Swindon game," the boss said. "He's stayed away for a couple of days. I told him to stay away. He's back in on Thursday, so we'll look at things then."
Buyabu is facing a three-match suspension for his action and won't be available for selection until later this month.
Bruce, in the hot-seat since the end of June, also faced a question about whether he thought his job was under threat after 10 matches without a win -a run that has left Rotherham in 22nd spot.
"It's not about me," he said. "If there's a fight to be had, I'll have it, but I know the buck stops with me."
He was angered by the displays of some individuals tonight that saw Newcastle progress to the next round from Group C along with Bradford City.
"In large parts of it, there wasn't really that much in the game," he said. "They counter-rattacked us in the first half and scored. We didn't do enough to win the game. I think we huffed and puffed.
"As I've just said to the players in the dressing room, to win football matches, you have to show a little bit more than that. If we are going to get out of the trouble that we're in, we need to start showing a bit more than we did tonight."