Paul Warne not impressed by Michael Smith’s performance despite brace

Posted Wednesday, September 29, 2021 by PA

Rotherham boss Paul Warne gave Michael Smith the cold shoulder despite the striker scoring twice in a 3-0 win over AFC Wimbledon.

Smith took his tally to seven goals in the last eight League One games with a brace against the Dons, coming after Will Grigg’s first league goal for the club put the Millers ahead.

Despite his goalscoring antics, Warne was not impressed with Smith’s overall performance and did not congratulate him after the game.

Warne said the 29-year-old is possibly the best striker in the division if he could combine both elements of his game.

“Potentially he is, if everything away from goalscoring is working and he scores then he’s perfect,” he said. “Tonight he scored but his all-round play wasn’t great. I don’t know which I’d choose.

“He didn’t have the best game tonight but I have really high standards of him, so having me as a manager is a nightmare for him, I didn’t even go in and congratulate him, I didn’t think he was very good.

“He gives so much even if he isn’t having the best time on the ball. His two goals, he is scoring for fun at the minute so long may it continue. He has started the season really well.”

Rotherham’s display was not as impressive as during the 1-1 draw against Crewe on Saturday where they had 23 shots on goal only to be hit by a stoppage-time sucker-punch.

This was a more clinical performance, but Warne was not content.

“I was disappointed with our performance truth be told compared to the weekend,” Warne added. “It’s how strange football is, it’s about winning football games and today we did.

“It is a results business. Saturday we were excellent and got booed off today we were poor and won 3-0. From a performance point of view we are better than that.”

The game could have been different had referee Andy Haines pointed to the spot when Aaron Pressley looked to be hauled down by Richard Wood at 0-0.

But overall Dons boss Mark Robinson had no complaints.

“It was men versus boys, they were better all over the pitch,” he said. “They looked like a side who have come down from the Championship and could go back up and we looked like a side learning.

“There are small margins, it was a definite penalty in the first half and the ref said he couldn’t give it because he couldn’t keep up with play.

“It looked like a stonewall penalty. Would that have made a difference? I don’t know because they were very good all over the pitch.

“There are loads of learning points, the only positive is that we will learn.”