STEVE Evans thought City were fortunate not to see red in their EFL Trophy loss to Rotherham.

The Millers boss is never shy of an opinion – and felt a couple of challenges in the second half overstepped the mark.

Referee Jacob Miles did not have a particularly good night and the Bantams were adamant they should have had a penalty when Richie Smallwood was knocked over.

But Evans reckoned the official should have taken a firmer stance with City’s approach. He was unhappy with the challenges that saw Smallwood and Jamie Walker booked.

Evans said: “In the second half, it looks like there were one or two challenges on there where if it had been an EFL game, we might have expected a couple of Bradford players to be in the dressing room early.

“They were a couple of naughty challenges. They are not players that do that and are probably frustrated a little bit and I understand that part of it.

“We’ve come and won a game and it’s the second away win for probably two years.”

The pressure has been mounting on Evans after Rotherham’s poor start to the season in League One.

He was delighted with the 1-0 victory – which saw them top northern group H and guarantee a home draw in the second round.

“Graham (Alexander) made five changes (sic) and we had a number of changes and some players were obviously chasing minutes.

“But there were some good players chasing minutes. For me, the best player on the park was Shaun McWilliams, by a country distance.

“To come away to Bradford and go away top of the group with home advantage in the next round, that’s what we have achieved and it’s a bit more money for the football club, which is not going to go amiss.

“We worked the boys really hard last week and I said to the supporters that they would be in working. It felt like hard work and we wanted to win this group and have them work for a lot of minutes.

“Three or four in the group have proved a point and it’s been a good exercise and thanks to the Rotherham United supporters who stayed to the end.”