Pragmatic Paul Warne reflects on Rotherham United’s FA Cup exit

QPR manager Mark Warburton faces a potential goalkeeper crisis after Jordan Archer was injured while making the decisive save in the penalty shoot-out win against Rotherham.
Rotherham United manager Paul Warne. Picture Bruce RollinsonRotherham United manager Paul Warne. Picture Bruce Rollinson
Rotherham United manager Paul Warne. Picture Bruce Rollinson

Archer’s stop from Chiedozie Ogbene took the Championship side through to the fourth round.

But he appeared to seriously hurt his shoulder in the process and was taken straight to hospital after several minutes of treatment on the pitch. Back-up goalkeeper Archer was playing in the absence of Seny Dieng, who is at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal.

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Rotherham manager Paul Warne was not dispirited by the exit and said: “It’s not nice to lose on penalties of course but fair play to QPR for winning it.

“I thought in the first half we might have edged it, although they created better chances and have a bit more of a cutting edge than we have. Our keeper kept us in it and in the second half I thought we were a little bit better and had a bit more of a threat.

“I just felt that the longer the game went on the better we were. To get a goal in extra-time was good but we just didn’t have enough to hold on.

“All in all, the lads have done really well and are in good form.

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“Both teams were attacking and it felt like we had a corner and then they had a corner. But, again, fair play to QPR.”

League One leaders Rotherham went ahead eight minutes into extra-time when Wes Harding’s long diagonal ball from the right dropped to fellow defender Michael Ihiekwe, whose low shot went in off the far post.

Rangers equalised when Lyndon Dykes’s header from Albert Adomah’s right-wing cross was tipped against the underside of the bar by Josh Vickers but the ball then ricocheted off the goalkeeper’s back and over the line.

Warburton admitted: “Rotherham are very good at what they do. They’re very direct, can kill a game and make it very hard to have rhythm and tempo to it.

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“We fell into their trap and didn’t impose ourselves on the game. I felt it was a scrappy game and we didn’t move the ball very well. We got dragged into a challenging game. They’re better at what they do than we are at what they do.”

Queens Park Rangers: Archer, Dickie, Dunne, Barbet, Adomah, Ball (Amos 70), Johansen; Wallace (Odubajo 59), Thomas (Dozzell 71), Austin (Dykes 59), Gray; Odubajo (Drewe 91). Unused substitutes: Field, Walsh, Duke-Mckenna, Armstrong.

Rotherham United: Vickers, Edmonds-Green (Ogbene 58), Wood, Ihiekwe; Barlaser (Odofin 79), Harding, Rathbone, Sadlier (Lindsay 58); Ferguson (Bola 79), Smith, Grigg (Kayode 65). Unused substitutes: Johansson, Mattock, Ladapo, MacDonald.

Referee: M Salisbury (Lancashire).

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