Rotherham United manager Paul Warne also gave his thoughts on the two penalty decisions that helped his side to an unlikely win – their first in 9 games.
Warne conceded that his side were up against a stronger side and that the Swans gave them a “footballing lesson” but “lady luck” was on their side as they came back from a goal down to win 2-1 thanks to two penalties in a late 8-minute spell.
Reacting to Swansea’s performance, Warne said:
“I wasn’t happy with our performance. In fairness, I think the lads gave everything they had. They were significantly better than us, virtually in every department for the majority of the game. No one in the dressing room is proud of the performance but we’re proud of the result. I’m definitely proud of the character of my team.
“At 1-0, the game’s still alive. I was happy to get them in at half-time at 1-0, to be honest. We rode our luck at the start of the second half and Marek pulled off a couple of great saves. We just stuck in there and the character that we waffle on about at times came good for us.
“But the lads are really proud. They stick their chest out and go and play and perform every week. It’s probably as good as away team that have played here. Swansea were just unbelievable, they were moving the ball quick, they hardly played a bad pass. They were rapid.
“It ended up like a 20-minute game. All the unfortunate luck we’ve had at the start of the season has sort of been wrapped up to give us a bit of fortune today.
“Did we deserve it? Possibly not. But the character of the lads to keep going probably did.
“The lads can be pretty chuffed with themselves even though they haven’t played to their best today against a really good Swansea team. I’d like to harp on about them because they were excellent. They’ll be hugely disappointed not to come away with something. But in football, sometimes, the best team doesn’t always win.”
We did “completely outplay” them and we did give them a footballing lesson, but as he says, it was only 1-0 and a game is never safe or won at 1-0. We were too comfortable in the second half and didn’t really look like getting a second after Fer’s big miss after 47 minutes.
In fact, Warne’s compliments goes to show just how much better we were in the game and how we should have easily taken the three points and wrapped up the win earlier in the game. It’s not the first or even the second time that we’ve dropped points despite dominating and we’ve got to start learning lessons quick in this league if we want to be competing higher in the table.
Talking about the penalties, Warne added that he could have no sympathy for the second as Leroy Fer blocked his face with his hands – conceding a penalty in the process.
“I’ve got no sympathy for the second one. He’s got to be brave and take one in the face,”
It’s a fair comment although it’s a harsh one from the referee as Fer’s handball doesn’t add any extra advantage to the situation, he still would have blocked the shot (that was going well wide anyway) with his face.
You can read Potter’s reaction to the penalty decisions here
