Swindon Town manager Ian Holloway has expressed his displeasure with his side’s performance despite beating nine-man Rotherham United.

The Robins beat the struggling Millers 2-1 on Saturday to move one point off the play-offs in what is turning into a tight battle for the four spots.

While you would think Holloway would be pleased his side claimed all three points, they made the game a lot more difficult than it really had to be.

Rotherham were reduced to 10 men after just four minutes when Jili Buyabu was sent off. Then, with the score 1-0 to the Robins, Dominic Iorfa was sent off, leaving the visitors with just nine men. Swindon Town doubled their lead two minutes after the second dismissal, but the Millers scored in the 87th minute, to make for a nervy ending.

Speaking after the game to the Swindon Advertiser, Holloway shared his opinion on a few of the key talking points from, as he called it, “the most bizarre game that I have ever seen in my life”.

First Red Card

Buyabu’s red card early in the game: the Millers loanee elbowed Jack Thomson, leaving the referee with not much choice but to send him off. On the incident, Holloway said:

“Their first challenge, what was he doing? It was absolutely crazy. It looked like he meant it and smashed him in the face.”

While Holloway was angry about the situation, Steve Agnew, Rotherham United’s assistant manager, spoke to the Yorkshire Post about how the midfielder had let his side down. Agnew said:

“We’re all disappointed, and Jili, basically, he’s let his teammates down more than anything.”

Swindon Town in Control But Let the Millers Off

The match momentum graph by Sofascore shows the Robins were in control throughout the game, but failed to make their numerical advantage really count.

Rotherham had a slight spell just before the game, but when they received the red card, Swindon took charge. The first half shows Holloway’s side putting lots of pressure on, something that is reflected in their first-half statistics. They had 75% possession and 10 shots but only three on target, only taking the lead in added time.

The second half was more of the same, but the South Yorkshire side showed fight. Swindon had 72% possession, recording five shots, only one of which was on target. Compare that to the Millers, who had three shots, two on target but only 28% possession, spending the last 10+ minutes with nine men.

More Work to Do on the Training Ground

The Swindon Town manager spoke about the work he needs to do with the players on the training pitch after their struggles against 10 and nine men. He explained:

“It’s testing every bit of my experience, and I’m completely exhausted now because I hated every second of that.

“Just keep the ball. Come deeper, keep the ball. Leave Palmer up there. Leave [Aaron] Drinan up there. Just come deeper. Bop bop bop. Get it, and then work it, because we could have done.

“But I’ll show them that, and then we’ll practice it, and then we’ll have to do it. We’re trying to learn as we play.

“Did we get the right numbers in the middle line? We had too many high up. We played it for, and we lost it. They only got nine, and they were desperate. They put forwards on to try and get something.

“All we needed to do is sit in with them, and then our skill would have been enough, to just get that middle line numbers right, and then we pick the ball up.

“We could have killed him, but we didn’t. And then we made it look as hard as it possibly could be.

“We were lucky to do it in the end. It was absolutely hideous, but we’ve got three points.”