Millers 1 Stoke 1 - Ronnies Reaction.

Last updated : 15 August 2004 By Bigrich.....
"I couldnt see them scoring, it was like a knife to the heart when they did." Ronnie told Brian Chapple after the game with Stoke at Millmoor.

"Paul Shaws scored a magnificent goal, hes just come and sidefoot it and put it in the corner, and that should have been enough for us to have won the game, but we have to learn to how to hold on, I though we defended far too deep and allowed them to come onto us. They put an extra striker on up front but that was still only three against our back four there shouldnt have been a problem."

Felt like we've lost
"It was basic poor defending, we've allowed the ball to bounce on the back stick, have'nt dealt with the ball thats come in and unfortunately for us at this level you get punished."

"If we had won the game we would have been fifth, we have'nt we've draw and we're in 18th, that's how tight this league is, I think its going to be tight all season again, nobodys running away with it, Plymouth have had a decent start but all the big boys, the Leeds, the Wolves are'nt finding it as easy as people thought they would. Thats why when we're at home we have to turn the draws into wins."

"They opened bright in the first twenty minutes, but after that we had a little pop after half time we got the goal and we should have pushed for another, why we sat back I dont know! I suppose when your in the lead and your not going to score many goals defenders tend to say well hold on a minute lets try and defend what we've got, so I've given them a rocket at the end just so say we cant afford to defend that deep and allow them to play the balls in, but I couldnt see them scoring, but at this level you make one mistake and you get punished."

"I suppose with three points from three games you could say we are still undefeated but we have to learn to grind out wins when we are on top like we were in the second half.

When asked if Ronnie was going to make changes for next weeks game at Reading he replied, "It might be a change of shape maybe, but there things I've got to look at, we've got a decent squad here now and theres players there who have'nt played today and have'nt started who might start next week. We just have to look at certain patterns of play. Reading are a good side they will be 4-4-2 and come at us, it might be that we have to work at a new system that will work for us when we're away from home."