Rotherham United boss offers brutally honest verdict on Sunderland draw - and harsh penalty calls

Jake Hastie’s second half strike secured a point for the Millers, who impressed after the break having fallen behind to Marc McNulty’s early effort.

But Warne felt his side’s performance was far from the finished article in a surprising verdict.

“In fairness, we rode our luck tonight,” he admitted.

“I’m not sitting here pretending everything is rosy. It isn’t. We didn’t play well for the first 25 minutes, that’s for sure.

“But after that I thought we had a go and just did enough.”

Rotherham had almost half a dozen penalty shouts in the opening 45 minutes, all of which were waved away by referee Ben Toner.

But Warne feels his side were on the end of some harsh decisions.

“I thought we should have had two,” he added.

“But I don’t know if everyone agrees with me, so I don’t want to sound like a lunatic.

“I thought the one where Carlton [Morris] went round him and completely blocked him off [was a penalty].

“The fourth official kindly said that the ref thought that the player ran into his back, but I don’t know any centre forward who would choose to run into the back of a player if he can have a shot from eight yards.

“And then Jake [Hastie] went round the keeper and I though he got clipped.

“He stayed on his feet, which is great, but then you get punished for being honest. I thought that was a pen.”