The manager's office, that referee and the wait for missing men ... the story of Rotherham United 0 Stockport County 1

Not for the first time this season, he was vexed by his side's inability to build on a bright start and take something from a game.

That a new team shorn by injuries of some of its top talent had failed to do itself justice had previously occurred too often on the road . Now, it had just happened at AESSEAL New York Stadium.

The manager headed for his office along the corridor from the dressing room for a period of quiet contemplation.

“I'm just a bit frustrated and annoyed,” he said. “I sat in my room for ten minutes and then came out to speak to you lot.”

The boss needs time to turn the club around and has warned often that it won't happen overnight. But a drop into League One's relegation zone was a sobering stop-off point on the way to a brighter future.

“A fair reflection?” he was asked about 21st spot after a second-half goal and 1-0 defeat had brought this season's unbeaten home run to an end and moved victors Stockport County into play-off contention.

“Well, it has to be because that's where we are,” he snapped. Well, actually, he didn't snap, he's not like that, but his ire was evident.

“I felt that today we weren't anywhere near our best, and I don't think Stockport were at their best. You could argue that if we'd scored that goal at the end for 1-1 we would probably have felt a little bit luckier than them.”

He was referring to the 83rd-minute incident involving bungling referee David Rock and a close-range Liam Kelly effort that was ruled out for offside.

Whether the official was right to take heed of his flag-raising assistant on that occasion is a matter for argument. What isn't up for debate is that he got many things wrong on a grim Saturday in S60.

It rained in the morning, it rained throughout the contest, it continued to rain long into the night as cloud, real and metaphorical, hung over New York.

Hamshaw, used to success as a coach in these parts and now trying to find it in a higher role, said: “I didn't think there was a lot in the game.

“We didn't grab it by the scruff of the neck and that's my frustration, because in all of my previous period of time we have grabbed hold of games.

“I think everybody knows where we're at. We need to look up and not down and stay positive as a group. I'm asking people to do a lot of things that probably they aren't used to doing, so I can't fault the lads' effort and application. But we've just got to be better at certain times in matches.”

The team, until missing men return, is an uneasy mix of new blood and inherited players, the much-talked-about restoration of the DNA still a work in progress.

There were flashes of potential – McWilliams' dash and raking pass to Ar'Jany Martha and Martha's deft set-up for Joe Powell, some slick passages of play that made light of a wet surface, plus any number of Dan Gore contributions.

Yet there were more flashes of a side not yet able to believe in itself - Powell's weak shot that killed the aforementioned opportunity, loose control from Josh Kayode that twice cost him shooting chances, weak defending that led to the Millers giving away a goal that should have been avoided.

Kayode, one of the many injury victims this term, was starting for the first time since a knee operation. “I thought he did all right,” Hamshaw said. “You saw a little bit of rust. He looked how I thought he'd look. He's still not properly ready, but needs must.”

The Millers weren't brave enough to test themselves going forward and the consequence of that was Cameron Dawson spending much of his afternoon dealing with back-passes.

When he was called into action by the opposition rather than his teammates, he was found wanting on the hour mark when the visitors took the lead.

The goalkeeper wasn't the only culpable Rotherham player as the home side passed up on more than one opportunity to avert danger before Kyle Wootton finally claimed the contest's winner.

“Yeah, hugely disappointed,” Hamshaw replied when asked about the County striker's header. “I thought we should have dealt with it better. "There have been a couple of instances of that in the last few games. Look, I hate conceding goals. We've always prided ourselves on clean sheets.

“For that goal to go in the way it did, I've just said to players: ‘I'm not happy with that. We need to move up quicker. We need to be more aggressive.’ I thought that at times we weren't aggressive enough today. That's frustrating.”

Reece James didn't make it difficult enough for Jayden Fevrier to skip round him and deliver a right-flank cross that Jamal Baptiste got his head to. As the ball dropped, a Dawson catch seemed the obvious option, but the keeper chose to punch. That allowed Ollie Norwood to deliver from the edge of the penalty area and, with Zak Jules going missing in action, Wootton flicked a header past a static Dawson.

Late on, Rotherham were left between Rock and a hard place, finding it tough to accept the ref's offside ruling after Kelly had converted Marvin Kaleta's supply only two minutes after coming off the bench.

By then, the Millers had no strikers on the pitch, Kayode not yet able to last the course of a full game and Jordan Hugill spared the labour of further fruitless toil.

“It would have been easy for me today to go with one up top and two ‘10s’,” Hamshaw said. “But I just felt like we'd had success at home playing two up front.”

The final whistle brought a smattering of boos and the boss took himself off to his private sanctum for some irritated reflection.

Oh, for an empty treatment room. The likes of Sam Nombe, Martin Sherif and Thomas Holmes will have been uppermost in his thoughts.

A man on a long-term project weighed down by short-term concerns.