Angry Rotherham United boss could’ve ‘dragged three or four off’ v Sheffield Wednesday

A brace from Michael Smith saw the Owls run out as 2-0 winners over the Millers on Sunday, a victory that ended Wednesday’s long winless streak and bring to an end a goal drought that had lasted over 10 hours.

The home goalkeeper barely had anything to do at Hillsborough as Cameron Dawson kept a second clean sheet of the campaign, and Taylor didn’t think his team were at the races.

Speaking to the media afterwards he said, "I’m frustrated, angry, upset in so many ways that we were so poor in so many departments, in and out of possession… We were second best in so many ways and in a derby you can’t afford that. For 10 minutes the game was relatively balanced then we give away a breakaway goal and the whole atmosphere and scenery of what the game looked like changes.

"We just weren’t bright enough in terms of getting to the ball first, winning it and using it better. Some of them really tried to stand up but there was not enough of an understanding.

"It’s a derby, it’s going to be crash, bang, wallop so get to the ball first. Sometimes you’ve got to put your body on the line a little bit more than we did today, sprint and just be close enough to the action to say I’m having a positive effect on the game."

Taylor made his first substitute as early as the 26^th minute when Arvin Appiah was replaced by Sebastian Revan, and the Millers boss thinks he possibly should have done even more.

“I could have dragged three or four off,” he admitted. “And maybe I should have done. That is a drastic thing for a manager to do… You’ve got to trust your players but unfortunately some of them have lost a little bit of my trust in a game like that. It was exactly what we expected it to look like and too many went missing.

"I’ll be looking at the video and seeing who really sprinted in all those moments because you’ve got to sprint in all directions. Sprinting and putting yourself in the action is what we’ve lacked."

Wednesday are now three points behind Rotherham in the Championship table, and could leapfrog them this weekend if results go their way.