Rotherham boss Matt Taylor feels hard done by after ‘soft’ stoppage-time penalty

Posted Wednesday, October 26, 2022 by PA

Rotherham manager Matt Taylor criticised referee Andy Davies after Viktor Gyokeres’ stoppage-time penalty earned Coventry a 2-2 draw.

Rotherham had twice been ahead through Cohen Bramall’s first Millers goal before Conor Washington broke the offside trap.

Gustavo Hamer briefly levelled things at 1-1 before former Sky Blue defender Richard Wood brought down Callum O’Hare and Coventry top scorer Gyokeres slotted home the equaliser.

Taylor said: “The second goal is not a penalty. The referee was weak enough to make that decision.

“The referee was laughing at me when he came off the pitch. We’ve been involved in a fantastic game of football, credit to both teams, but we do feel hard done by.

“As that second half went on some decisions went against us and the penalty is soft at best in all honesty.

“Our centre-half doesn’t change his path in any way, he follows the player’s path and doesn’t go in towards the player, doesn’t put his leg across the opposition player. (It was) very clever from the opposition centre forward, but that was a soft moment which is a real shame for us.”

The Millers could have moved two points off the play-offs with victory but conceded late on to make it two wins, two draws and two losses since Paul Warne departed.

New boss Taylor is unhappy with his side’s fitness levels after he felt he had to substitute both Hakeem Odoffin and Cohen Bramall, which left him just one opportunity to make his final three changes.

Taylor said: “I’ve got to be honest, where I want my players to be fitter than they are, you saw I had to make two changes pretty early. Haks (Odoffin) was on a yellow and close to being sent off and then Cohen, who was excellent, cramped up after 60 minutes. They’re two forced changes which no manager wants to make.

“It’s an incredible squad, I’m proud to be part of it, but I need 90-minute players who can play Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday. I don’t want to change the team, I want the best players out there every single week because then you find your rhythm. But at the moment with so many games that looks a little bit impossible.”

Mark Robins was upbeat despite his side’s three-match winning run coming to an end.

“We haven’t lost the game, we’ve come back late again in the game and not lost it, so whilst we can be slightly disappointed, not really,” said Robins.

“We’ve picked a point up and we keep moving forward against a stubborn team that defend deep but have also got some good players.

“We played some good football and the two goals we scored were outstanding again. I thought there was some really good performances as well and the substitutes made impacts.

“I’m happy with getting back into it and not going under. I think we needed to keep calm heads because you can start to panic and throw balls into the box. At some points we did that but we showed enough calmness to grow and create those better chances.”