Rotherham United 2 Ipswich Town 5: Redfearn left seeking reinforcements for Millers

ON TARGET: Rotherham United loanee Brandon Barker celebrates his stunning goal against Ipswich Town. Picture: James Brailsford.

The Millers were shambolic in the first-half, conceding to Brett Pitman’s flicked header after only seven minutes.

Paul Green, at fault for dithering on the ball for the opener, was again to blame after Jonathan Douglas robbed him in the midfield before firing home from long-range. Daryl Murphy scored just before the break with a rifled shot from a corner.

Murphy continued in a similar vein in the second-half, quickly adding another after a clearing header from the Ipswich back-line, before inking his name on the scoresheet for a third time after a two-goal fightback from Rotherham.

Mick McCarthy admitted that those strikes, a long-range stunner from Manchester City loanee Brandon Barker and a volley from Matt Derbyshire, had given him “a little murmur of the ticker”, but Redfearn said there were “no excuses” for his side’s display.

He said: “It started in the first minute, Danny Collins trying a backwards header to Lee Camp, putting Sears free in front of goal. Camp makes a good save and we get away with it. We were really tentative and nervous.

“We were really negative in midfield. We didn’t get close to them, we didn’t work hard enough, we didn’t do the ugly stuff well.

“It had to have been the 35th minute before we had a centre-half that won a header. We were too lightweight.”

Redfearn revealed the club are going to look at potential reinforcements over the international break, but admitted the squad would not be revolutionised.

He said: “You work with what you’ve got. We’re trying to squeeze the most we can out of these lads.

“I said at the beginning that it might be two steps forward and one back, but I don’t expect a performance like that first half.

“We’ve got to pick them up. We’ve got a two-week period before we play Leeds. We’ll take a look at some players we’ve got coming in on trial next week. We can’t change everything.”

Rotherham United: Camp; Richardson, Rawson, Collins, Toffolo (Buxton, 85); Thorpe (Clarke-Harris, 45), G Ward, Green (Smallwood, 45), Barker; Derbyshire, D Ward. Unused substitutes: Collin, Broadfoot, Newell, Andreu.

Ipswich Town: Gerken; Chambers, Smith, Berra, Knudsen; Skuse, Douglas, Bru (Maitland-Niles, 65), Sears (Coke, 80); Pitman, Murphy (Parr, 90). Unused substitutes: Bialkowski, Malarczyk, Oar, Toure.

Referee: D Drysdale (Lincolnshire).

Man of the match: Daryl Murphy.