Shrewsbury manager Gavin Cowan admitted he had mixed emotions as his side fought back from two-goals down to lead at the New York Stadium only to be pegged back by Rotherham late on thanks to sub Tom Bradshaw’s leveller in a 3-3 draw.

It was thrill-a-minute stuff early on and Paul Mullin’s early brace put the Millers in charge of the contest, but the Shrews hit back through Josh Davison soon after Kian Spence had saw red for the hosts.

Second-half goals from Josh Ruffels and Will Boyle looked set to earn Cowan’s side their third win on the spin in Sky Bet League Two until Bradshaw’s equaliser with 14 minutes to go dashed their hopes – while Kian McMahon-Brown was dismissed with just seven minutes to go for the visitors.

“There is a lot of emotion in the dressing room.” Cowan said.

“I’m really proud of the players from the start we had. It was really disappointing to be two-goals down. I can’t fathom as to why that happened. It was individual errors and players making poor decisions. We have got to be better.

“The red-card ensues and we were right on the ascendancy with the goal just before half-time. The second-half was just about patience and playing our patterns and not chasing after everything and we did that.

“You go 3-2 up and you think it’s going to be a positive day, but we were a bit naive. We could have won the game by a bit more, but we decided to play backwards, and it changed the momentum of the game.”

The Millers – who let a two-goal lead slip at the hands of Newport County in midweek having to settle for a point – will have feared history was repeating itself when Shrews turned the game on its’ head after Spence’s sending-off.

However, Millers head coach Alex Bruce, who was cautioned his first-half protestations, saw his side fight back to earn a share of the spoils despite playing a large part of the game with just ten men.

Bruce believed the vocal support of the Rotherham faithful helped his side overcome their numerical disadvantage, for which they were justly rewarded with a typical “South Yorkshire performance”.

“To be fair to the supporters, I think they got their money’s worth”. Bruce added.

“I thought we started the game very well, obviously going two goals up. When we get the sending off and then we concede straight after, you think it’s going to be a long afternoon. But I have to say the resilience and the desire to get back into the game was something that really pleased me.

“I felt as if there was a bit of a connection there again today between the supporters and the players.

“That pleased me because I think they could see it was a proper South Yorkshire performance where they dug in, they had a go and that’s what we all want.”