Leeds United head coach Steve Evans believes it was impossible for his side to recover from a disastrous error from Giuseppe Bellusci at the New York Stadium, as Rotherham United edged out his men 2-1 in a Championship clash. 

It was an even game in the opening exchanges at the New York Stadium, but Rotherham took the lead in the 27th minute when Lee Frecklington struck.




The Millers captain, with his side's first shot on target, got on the end of a cross and fired the ball past Leeds goalkeeper Marco Silvestri.

Leeds pushed to find an equaliser before half time, but came up short, despite several attempts from Mirco Antenucci.
 


Leeds brought on Mustapha Carayol and Stuart Dallas on at around the hour mark as they searched for a way back into the match. 

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And within minutes Rotherham were down to ten men when Matt Derbyshire was shown a second yellow card.

Leeds battled for an equaliser and it came in the 79th minute when Luke Murphy hit a long range strike which took a deflection and found the back of the net.

There was a further twist however and it came two minutes from time when a defensive howler from Bellusci, as he tried an overhead kick,  left Silvestri needing to make a challenge which saw him sent off and a penalty awarded – and Greg Halford scored to secure a 2-1 win for the Millers.

Evans was happy with his team's performance overall, but bemoaned the error which led to Rotherham's second.

"When you make the type of mistake that was made today, you don't recover from that", he told BBC Radio Leeds.

"I was pleased with overall performances and we always had a plan to introduce width.

"The players are very down because there's no way we should be leaving here having lost the game.

"I'm a different manager tonight than I was after Huddersfield.

"It was an individual error tonight that cost us and gave Rotherham a win", Evans added.