Matt Taylor on Luton Town providing inspiration in Rotherham United's Championship mission

Rotherham United - and others such as Barnsley, Wigan and Blackpool - know that better than most.

The Millers, to their credit, have put themselves in a good position in their quest to avoid an unwanted hat-trick of instant relegations following promotions in the previous campaign.

Achieving that and then incrementally moving up the Championship in subsequent seasons is harder but not impossible either.

In that regard, Rotherham are given inspiration from their next opponents Luton Town.

The Hatters, in their first season back at this level in 2019-20, staved off the drop and finished in 19th place.

A mid-table finish arrived in 2020-21 followed by a play-off berth last term.

A top-four place looks likely to continue the upward trend in 2022-23, with the fortunes of another side promoted relatively recently in Coventry City also providing hope.

After consolidating at this level in 2020-21, following promotion with the Millers in the previous campaign, the Sky Blues have finished 16th and 12th and are now on course for their best league finish since 2005-06.

Millers chief Matt Taylor, whose side took four points over Easter against Norwich City and West Brom, said: "Luton are constantly mentioned and rightly so.

"They are a similar sort of team and it is achievable.

"But the first port of call is staying in the league. We have a good opportunity to do that between now and the end of the season and that's the full focus.

"We’re constantly learning and admiring what other teams do. But I want people to admire Rotherham and say 'they are an example of how it should be' and that they’ve learnt a lot from the last six years and going up and down and so forth and say 'now they are starting to get it right.' It takes a little bit of time.

"First things first, you need to try and stay in the league and then we get a bigger chance and better opportunity to start building like towards what these teams have done from League One in the past five or ten years."