Bristol City 1 Rotherham United 1 - Neil Warnock fuming with rival boss Lee Johnson as Millers edge closer to safety

Warnock came to his post-match press conference armed with a cut-out of an article that appeared in the Bristol Post which saw Johnson urging his side to win the game through “aggression, good football or intimidation”.

The 67-year-old boss, who read excerpts of the article out, said he used that as his team-talk and watched on as the Millers stretched their unbeaten run to seven games after Matt Derbyshire’s strike was cancelled out by Peter Odemwingie in the second half.

“He did my team talk for me. We stood up to the intimidation, he asked for it in the newspaper,” Warnock said. “He said how we wanted the crowd to intimidate and that’s what they tried to do.

“Luckily we had a strong referee who stood up to it.

“I thought it was a disgrace, I know he’s a young manager, but it was almost inciting the crowd that. I thought that was out of order doing that. Like father like son.

“I don’t think he should be saying things like that.

“I thought they were super again, its a super result for us. I can’t say anything bad about anybody.”

The Millers made the perfect start as Derbyshire, who received a mid-afternoon reprieve from the Football Association when his weekend red card was rescinded, made the most of it with a superb finish in the 12th minute.

But the Robins, buoyed by an excitable crowd that Johnson asked for, hit back and Odemwingie levelled with his second goal for the club not long after half-time.

They could have gone on to win it but Lee Camp made some fine saves and both sides took a point which moves them closer to safety after MK Dons lost again to now sit six points adrift.

“The crowd were brilliant, I asked them for it and they delivered so I thank them for that,” Johnson said.

“It was always going to be difficult, it was a bit edgy, the referee probably didn’t help he had a poor 15 minutes.

“Our players were getting frustrated, I was getting frustrated and the fans were getting frustrated.

“But we kept our composure, kept our structure and we were the side that looked like going on and win it in my opinion.

“We had the three or four best chances of the game.”

On Odemwingie, who could have added a second soon after his leveller, the Robins boss added: “He is still learning at this level because he is used to playing at the highest level and that is a difficult game for him that.

“He wouldn’t have faced that too much and him and (Lee) Tomlin did really well.”

Bristol City: O’Donnell, Matthews, Flint, Baker, Golbourne (Freeman 75), Pack, Smith, Odemwingie (Kodjia 80), Tomlin, Bryan, Wilbraham. Unused substitutes: Fielding, Little, Agard, Reid, Pearce.

Rotherham United: Camp, Kelly, Broadfoot,Wood, Mattock, Halford, Grant Ward, Frecklington, Smallwood, Derbyshire (Danny Ward 64), Best. Unused substitutes: Thomas, Richardson, Clarke-Harris, Newell, Facey.

Referee: Gavin Ward (Surrey)