We were lightweight up front, predictable in midfield and porous at the back. Villa really didn't have to work too hard for their win. That was as bad a performance since away at Derby last season. Going to be long, hard season.

I didn't go today so won't comment on the performance. More than in most games though the first goal today was going to be important because their confidence was fragile. Anyway, two league games in and the doommongers are out already (looking at the other site). It's hard to know what you say when you lose. If you are critical it feels like an over reaction and if you are phlegmatic you get accused of being an apologist. My take on it is this - we aren't going to take too many points away from home from teams likely to finish in the top six. We haven't done so often before and we won't this season either. That's not to say that you write those games off but you have to stay realistic and (Stubbs is right) not get too downhearted. The truth is that their front three cost a combined £26m.  We all know we aren't competing on a level playing field. And sooner or later in games the extra quality that sort of money can buy tends to pay off. That is the harsh reality and it seems to be the story of todays game. Let's see how we are looking after ten or a dozen games against a mix of opposition and let's try and stay behind the manager and the team.  

-- Edited by smiler on Saturday 13th of August 2016 11:38:34 PM

-- Edited by smiler on Saturday 13th of August 2016 11:40:52 PM

Dear Mr Stewart, What we need is a Chinese consortium to come in and invest 200m plus Into our sleeping giant of a club. Then perhaps we can expect once more to consistently go to the biggest clubs in England's biggest cities week in week out and remind their 35,000 fans who is boss. Come on Tony, you're letting us down. What you have done to date isn't enough. With our history of success in the top two tiers of the game and bulging trophy cabinet we expect more. Two league games in and it's obvious Stubbs hasn't got a clue. Get shut and get on the phone to Beijing and make things happen or I will not be coming down to our excuse of a stadium any more. And in the meantime stop making plans for anything beyond next week - that won't get us anywhere. Kind Regards, Your Loyal Supporters.

v.good Smiler

I would like to add, in a lot of cases the only difference between £5m players and £500k players, is frequency of errors & technical cleverness. These are 2 factors that will decide any football match in the Championship and we are inferior than most in these 2 areas.

I did say a few weeks back, if AS has a footballing ethos, that's all very nice and in the spirit of the game blah blah, but it will not get him or us the results we need. If he tries to beat Champ teams by playing their way (as Redfearn did), he will do so badly he'll be sacked by Christmas because of the above 2 factors. The whole reason why Warnock did so well was, he saw that. In fact I don't think I've ever seen a Rotherham team that have been a better 'footballing' side than the opposition season long, including promotion years (can only go back to 1986 though when I started watching). What has got us success in those times was the blood, thunder, will to win / refusal to be beat.

We will never be on a level playing field in this league, and each year passes that gap grows. I think people need to realise we have hit our pinnacle, this is it. I would like to know, at what %age have the home attendances grown in relation to the away followings, I bet the away are bigger. The town does not support this football club in a way that the moaners want them to, and until they do we'll always be little old Rovrum, small fish in a big pond.

Quite simply these moaners should ask themselves which of these 3 scenarios they want, because they're the only ones that exist. 1) - Big fish in L2, 2) Competing largely successfully at L1 or 3) Battling and scrapping it out in the Championship. If it's 3 (which I imagine it might be for most), they need to shut the f*** up

I'm not calling for his head, just more organisation on the pitch. The players we have are what we have to work with and they are what we can afford. They simply have to be a more coherent unit if we are to hold our own. Yesterday - frustratingly - the organisation and structure looked the biggest difference, plus (I'm a stick record on this) we do need a finisher as we don't have one.

No need to panic, I really didn't' think we would get anything at Villa and expect less at Brighton. who know how it will pan out and yes we may go down!!! Remember we have been down before, personally I think we will stay up and Stubbs will do ok.

It wasn't the fact that it was Villa away, it the nature of the defeat that was worrying, it was all very Redfearnesque and reminded me of our performance at Derby last season. Warnock knew that the only way a team like Rotherham has any chance of competing in this league was to set up to be difficult to beat and maybe nick a win here and there and he did it to perfection. What Redfearn and now Stubbs believe is that we can play pretty, attacking football and match the big boys who have the resources to spend more on one player and pay him more in wages than the cost of our entire team - we can't.

Every goal was a soft goal, a break down on the left when three players fluffed their lines and allowed Villa to break and score with relative ease. A ball given away cheaply in the middle of the park that allowed Villa to carve open our static rear guard to inflict a killer blow on the stroke of half time and Woods (not for the first time) allowing Grealish to get goal side of him and then dance around our statuesque central defence to round Camp and score. In truth, we never looked like scoring and only made their keeper pull off one save of any note, but a save that any keeper worth his salt would have collected in truth. We rarely got our wide players into the game, never mind getting ball in the box. Our set plays were awful. Corners that were easily repelled, free kicks that didn't beat the first man and attacking play that was oh so predictable.

Let's be clear, Villa were there for the taking on Saturday. A physical, robust Millers side that got in amongst them and pressed the play would have heightened the tension in the ground and set the nerves of a side low on confidence jangling. Villa hadn't won in nineteen previous outings!! So of course we had to go out their and gift it to them on a plate.

Don't let anyone tell you, oh it was Villa away we expected nowt! Yes is was Villa away and maybe we would have been lucky to come away with anything from it but to go there and not compete was unforgivable.