Paul Warne accepts blame for Rotherham loss to Nottingham Forest

A scrappy game was decided midway through the second half when ex-Millers target Ryan Yates netted from close in, although TV replays suggested that the goal was offside.

Warne himself admitted that the better side won on the night and candidly acknowledged that he was at fault for not freshening up the staring line-up - with the Millers chief of the view that several looked jaded.

He said: “It was a little bit disappointing. The best team won. I have got no issue with that. I just didn’t think we were at our best tonight.

“A couple of away games and three games in six days, we just looked jaded really. With hindsight, it is my fault and no-one else’s fault. I should have changed my team more.

“I just don’t think we have loads of options in the middle of our pitch where our energy. I think we looked just a little bit off and I cannot criticise the lads as they have been amazing. That is my honest assessment.

“I just think they had a little bit more guile than us. But that aside, the lads still gave everything. There is no criticism there. But I just don’t think we did enough to win a game. There were a couple of half-chances and a Freddie (Ladapo) and a Smudge (Michael Smith) one late on. You can play poorly and pick up a point and the way the results went for us, if we’d have got a point, it would have been a great point.

A forgettable night was compounded by the fact that Michael Ihiekwe picked up his tenth booking of the season and will serve a two-match suspension and miss the games against Reading and Sheffield Wednesday.

Fellow key defender Richard Wood will also miss the weekend match with the Royals with a groin injury and could also miss next Wednesday's crucial trip to face his former club at Hillsborough.

“My captain obviously woke up with a sore groin and we had to pull him out, which was a blow, although I thought Angus (MacDonald) did well," Warne said.

“Unfortunately, it was not to be and we need to pick and strap them up and give them a shoulder rub as there is another big game coming up on Saturday.

On the offside call against his side for the goal, he added: “I was seventy metres away, so I don’t know if it was offside or not. I was hoping for a linesman’s flag as you always do.

"I have not seen it back and have people telling me its off, but hand on heart, it is disappointing if we have lost to an offside goal - quite obviously - but it does not detract from the fact that on the night they were better than us."