Miller: We didn't move on (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

SWINDON TOWN: Miller: We didn't move on

6:00am Monday 3rd September 2012 in Sport By Andy Warren

MIDFIELDER Tommy Miller admitted the Swindon squad failed to block the euphoria of victory over Stoke out of their minds as they crashed to a 4-1 defeat at Preston yesterday.

Town knocked the Premier League side out of the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night with a dramatic 4-3 extra-time victory, but it was a very different story at Deepdale as goals from Akpo Sodje and Nicky Wroe gave the home side a two-goal lead inside 15 minutes from which they never recovered.

Stuart Beavon and John Welsh both netted for the home side either side of a solitary Raffa De Vita goal for Town, and Miller admitted the visitors failed to shift the focus back onto the league following their midweek cup exploits.

“We are all disappointed but we are a team and we will move on, and we will do it as a team because we are in it together,” he said.

“We had to be strong enough to be able to put Stoke behind us because that was a one-off cup game, and although it was a great performance and a great win we needed to quickly move on to the next game which we didn’t do.

“It was very disappointing to lose in the manner that we did, especially after Tuesday night which was such a high for us.”

The two early goals shocked both the Town players and travelling fans alike, which Miller believes always left the Robins with an uphill battle in Lancashire.

“The big thing was we didn’t start the game very well at all, and we soon found ourselves two goals down, and from there we had a mountain to climb,” he said.

“If you get the first goal in any game of football you give yourself a huge advantage, and obviously they got it and then grabbed a second one not too long after so we were in a lot of trouble.

“We still believed we could have come back, and words were said at half-time just as you would have expected, and we came out in the second period and scored quickly.

“If we could have got another goal we would have been right back in with a shout, but then they got the fourth and it really killed us off because there is no coming back from that.”

Next up for Town is a trip to local rivals Oxford United on Wednesday evening in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, and the Miller believes the game represents the perfect opportunity to put things right.

“We need to put things right now, and that is the most important thing, but we have a big game on Wednesday night and that is our target now,” he said.

“The Oxford game is the perfect match for us now, and if you ask any professional they will tell you it is important to have a game come around quickly after a big defeat, and we need to put it right now.”