Time for us to stand up and be counted - Sharps

After last weekends shambolic defeat against Millwall, where manager Alan Knill slated his players and questioned wether they had it in them to take the responsibility for thier actions, the Millers captain Ian Sharps speaks to the Rotherham Advertiser.

Sharps admitted that he was one of the players that Knill is looking to take the lead as the Millers now look to save their season and halt the slide towards relegation.

"We have a very young side and it's hard for them. The more experienced players need to stand up and be counted and take account for what is going on. It's not so long ago that we were taking the plaudits for how we were playing. But if you take the praise then you've got to accept the criticism as well and be strong enough and man enough to take it." Sharps said.

"On Saturday we had roughly the same team which went to Swansea and nearly won."

"We can't blame anyone but ourselves for how we're doing and we're not going to. We had a chat in the changing room after the Millwall game. We know it's not good enough. I'm not saying I'm exempt from anything. But as a team, every single one of the lads know they're under performing and we must step it up for the next game. We have conceded silly goals. We've tried to stop them but we've not been succeeding in that."

"We're an attacking team and in certain games we've got to a situation of thinking we'll score more goals than the opposition. But you can't do that in this division. We've got to stop the other team playing before we do anything else. Defending is a collective thing. It's not just about the back four and the goalkeeper. It's the whole team. We defend together and attack together."