Why Steve Evans was frustrated with a 3-3 draw for Rotherham United at Peterborough United

The former Posh boss was disappointed to see a 3-1 half-time lead wiped out within eight second-half minutes and irritated his side missed three great chances to win the game in the final 15 minutes. And he was upset referee Elliott Bell failed to award his side a second-half penalty when Posh midfielder Ryan De Havilland clashed with Sam Nombe.

Nombe, Mallik Wilks and former Posh favourite Jonson Clarke-Harris scored for Rotherham. Posh effectively scored from three set-pieces with defenders James Dornelly and Emmanuel Fernandez on target. Joe Rafferty headed into his own net from a Jack Sparkes corner. Clarke-Harris tweaked his hamstring in the act of scoring and failed to appear for the second-half.

"We should have had a penalty,” Evans, who received a caution for dissent, said. “Sam has chopped the ball past him and the Posh player has gone into his standing leg, but I’m not allowed to wave my arms about and claim a penalty. We also had the better chances to win the game so we are more disappointed with the result than them.

"We had a three-on-one breakaway and didn’t find the right pass, we had a back post header and Cohen Bramall had to score at the end. It’s definitely two points dropped, but I hope the Rotherham fans enjoyed the fight and commitment they had been used to seeing two years ago.

"They started the better and forced us into a change of shape. It was an effective change and we controlled the game. We went 3-1 up before half-time and it could have been more. I knew we would get a reaction from Peterborough, but I didn’t expect to score an own goal to get them back in it and then the big lad scored from another corner. At 6ft 7ins he is hard to stop as Birmingham City and others have found this season.

“That got the crowd up which can happen here and they were better than us again, but once we changed again and brought substitutes on we became the better team. If you’d said at the start of the season we’d score three times at Peterborough you’d expect we’d win. They are a team with a reputation of playing through teams. but they didn’t do that here. They scored from three set-pieces.

"They can shout about how many players they are missing - it was just two midfielders, but we have huge players absent in Sean Raggett and Liam Kelly and losing Jonson was a blow as we’d worked all week on what he could achieve in this game, but he felt a twinge in his hamstring as he scored. It was nothing to do with his celebration as that was muted anyway out respect for the Posh fans.”

Rotherham are 15th, three places and one point behind Posh.