Boss Matt Taylor gave his thoughts to the Rotherham Advertiser.
“Going into the game, I knew the team was a weaker one than we wanted to put out,” he said. “I still expected more from individual performances and the collective performance.
“We were nowhere near in terms of some of the personnel on the pitch. It was a painful watch for everyone involved with the club.”
“You can't defend like we did tonight,” Taylor said. “We knew what was coming because we'd been here on the first day of the season.
“We struggled to control the space around the ball and the space away from the ball. Stoke are better than us in certain areas. They out-hustled us too often.
“I'll address certain aspects of personnel in the squad. They have to understand they have to be a lot better than that. There were players on that pitch who probably won't feature in the league campaign. Too many players were off it.”