Millers need to start believing in themselves, says Scott

Scott feels a number of players lost self-belief during the reign of former manager Ronnie Moore but is vowing to change the mentality in the club’s dressing room.

The Millers lost 4-1 at home to Championship club Leicester City on Tuesday night but were far from disgraced by their overall performance.

Having taken an early lead courtesy of Matt Mills’s own goal, the Millers did not fall behind until eight minutes into the second half when teenage striker Jeffrey Schlupp scored a hat-trick for the visitors.

“No-one gave us a hope but I believe in these players and the first half showed the belief was justified,” said Scott.

“We are still trying to come to terms with getting players to believe in themselves, making sure they look around and realise they have got good players around them.

“Those who have been here over the last couple of years have taken a few knocks,” he revealed. “They have had a few disappointments and negatives. I am not about that.

“We have lost a little bit of belief in ourselves but that’s a remnant of times past here and I’m not going to have that now.

“This is a different regime, a different set of players, a different way of doing things, and I don’t care about mistakes,” he said.

“As long as they are trying to do the right things, I don’t care. We will take the positives and work on the things we have done wrong.

“We have to get the mentality right,” he added.

“If people make mistakes, they are honest mistakes. We have a great set of lads who have worked hard to get to this point.”

The Millers opened the League Two campaign with a home win over Oxford United and travel to Plymouth Argyle this weekend.

“We can’t let Tuesday’s result detract from a good performance against Oxford, what we believe we have done right in pre-season and what we want to take in to Saturday’s game against Plymouth,” said Scott.

“We are a work in progress, we always were going to be,” he added.

“As long as we keep improving, we will be fine, because we have got some quality.”

Defender Marcus Marshall and striker Lewis Grabban will have treatment over the next few days after coming off with muscle injuries against Leicester.

Sheffield United chief Danny Wilson feels his side should have finished the game off against 10-man Hartlepool United before their tie went to a penalty shoot-out.

The Blades played for more than half-an-hour with a numerical advantage, but failed to make that tell as Scott Flinders pulled off a string of top saves.

But former Pools chief Wilson feels his men should have had things wrapped up long before Danny Philliskirk’s sudden-death penalty.

“First and foremost, the priority was to get through the tie,” he said. “But when the game got into the latter stages I thought we should have put it to bed, we had a lot of chances.”

Wilson was pleased with the Blades’ penalties, adding: “The lads didn’t shy away during the shoot-out and kept their nerve and we’re happy to be through.”

Barnsley manager Keith Hill accepted a portion of the blame after Morecambe caused a first-round upset at Oakwell.

Hill’s first competitive home game ended in disappointment as goals from Danny Carlton and Kevin Ellison earned League Two side Morecambe a 2-0 win.

Former Rochdale manager Hill, who arrived at Oakwell in June, said: “Bad decisions were made – players and manager.

“We’ve got to accept it and move on. The more right decisions you make, the more you win. It’s about how we respond to this defeat. It’s a valuable source of revenue that’s gone as a result of losing.”