Assistant manager Danny Webb has spoken exclusively to SpireitesTV to preview Tuesday night’s fixture against Gillingham.
Firstly, Webb provided his closing thoughts on the weekend’s defeat. He said: “I think when you concede a goal so late after thinking you’re clawing your way back into it and getting a point, it’s more of a sickening feeling than a normal defeat, although defeats are horrible to take.
“The performance wasn’t great by all accounts, so you have to sometimes accept that maybe you didn’t deserve to win the game, but I think after we equalised there was maybe a feeling that we can go on and win it, where in hindsight the point would have been more than enough.
“It’s difficult, the goal was a bit of a slip at the end, it comes from nowhere but mistakes do happen. We’re three games in, it’s great that we’ve got a big game on Tuesday to get everyone smiling again.”
Liam Mandeville scored his first goal of the season from the penalty spot on Saturday. Webb added: “I mean Mandy was everywhere wasn’t he, as he always is, and listen it’s never through the lack of effort, it’s a chat after the game and a meeting with all the players about Gillingham and just saying we’re not quite firing as a team at the moment.
“That sometimes happens so early on in the season, what’s important is that while you are transitioning, you pick up points along the way and that was a sickening thing on Saturday because we did have a point in the palm of our hands which would have sent our fans home, not jubilant, but certainly a lot happier than zero points.
Looking ahead to the midweek fixture, Webb explained: “It is under the lights, Gillingham are always tough games, their normal strong start to season in terms of they don’t lose many games.
“I’m sure last time Gareth [Ainsworth] came here we beat them with a set-piece and I’m sure we all want to sort of turn the tables on the weekend, so it is important that you do reflect but then you have to put Rotherham to bed and look forward or else you carry on moping. You go and win tomorrow night and the week looks a lot brighter.”
“It’ll be a light session today, things to improve on and looking forward to Gillingham and obviously keep the boys fresh enough as we can for whatever team the manager picks for tomorrow night.”
Finally, Webb discussed the benefit of having two back-to-back home games next up, saying: “I always say it works both ways, so we need to start the game tomorrow and get fans excited, we need to get them optimistic about the 90 minutes ahead. I think at Rotherham we didn’t really do that for large periods, so it’s important that we start tomorrow, we’re at home, we’re going to be the favourites and let’s play like it.
