Northampton boss Chris Hogg frustrated with decision to award Rotherham penalty

Northampton boss Chris Hogg hit out at the game-defining decision to award Rotherham a second-half penalty during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat.

The Cobblers were the better side in the first half at Sixfields but failed to make their good play count before Paul Mullin smashed home a 73rd-minute penalty to decide the game.

“It was frustrating to say the least,” said Hogg. “It was self-explanatory in terms of the drop-off from the first half to the second half.

“We should have been a goal up at half-time and that changes the complexion of the game.

“I don’t want to go straight there but I’m going to – the penalty is outside the box.

“I thought the referee was really poor. I wouldn’t want to do his job but you can’t get those decisions wrong. It’s a foul, a free-kick and probably a red card.

“We were the team getting into good areas in the first half and we had full control of the game in my opinion.

“We had energy, and the areas we played in and how we tried to do things was really good.

“The message at half-time was to raise it a level and to keep running forward and keep attacking them.

“But very quickly, you saw we didn’t do that in the second half and that’s a mental thing.”

The win was Rotherham’s first on the road this season.

“The clean sheet was the only thing that pleased me to be honest,” said Millers boss Alex Bruce.

“We’ve conceded too many goals so far this season but to see the way the lads dug in to keep a clean sheet pleased me more than anything else.

“You need a solid base to have a chance of success at any level, it gives the attacking players something to build on, so to keep them out was excellent.

“I didn’t think we were anywhere near it in the first half and there were too many sideways and backwards passes on the back-line.

“It bores me to tears when I see too many passes in your own half and that’s certainly not the way I want my team to play.

“I want to get it in the opposition’s half and ask questions of their back-line and I thought we did that more in the second half.

“I didn’t think the first half was a good game but we still had a couple of chances and the message at half-time was to get the ball forward more and don’t play as many square passes.

“It was a dry, sticky pitch and it was a slow, pedestrian game, but we raised the tempo and we won the game ugly in the end.”