Paul Warne on what Rotherham United staying up would mean to him

The Millers are preparing for a final date of destiny at Cardiff City on Saturday, with Warne’s side requiring a win in the Principality - coupled with Derby County failing to beat Sheffield Wednesday - in order to survive.

Warne has stressed that staying up would represent his biggest achievement in his football career to date and should that arise, it would be a feat shared by everyone connected with the club and supporters across the town.

Warne said: “If we were able to stay up, for all the positive fans who have stayed with the team who I am really appreciative of and all the people who text me after good results and to see all the people who I love - my family and best friends who I work with and people who I have worked with for years and years - it would be beyond exciting. It would be something amazing.

“Not that I would have done it, the players would have done it. We just try to pick a team to make it happen. But it would be something that would eclipse anything I have done before and the best thing I have done in a Rotherham shirt or as a staff member.

“It would mean a lot. It would be an amazing achievement for everyone involved. Even for the people on the training ground, the staff on the stadium and all the stewards. Every time you come to a home game, they are always positive with you and the people in the town. It would just give the town and the club a boost.

“It has been a strange year for everybody. I am not wishing ill on Sheffield Wednesday or Derby fans, but for the town of Rotherham and us to stay in the Championship in these circumstances would be fantastic. People who have been supportive from afar and I get loads of emails all the time and old-fashioned letters.

“I would just be great for everybody. Sometimes, players get hero-worshipped unnecessarily, but the efforts these lads have put in during the last 30 days, in my opinion, does deserve people's respect and gratitude.

“But they are doing it for everybody - their own families and the nine or ten thousand fans would have turn up here every week.

“If we do fall short, don’t blame them, blame me. They have done everything and fully deserve to be Championship players come the off-season.”

The Millers should pick from the same squad who faced Luton in midweek, with loanee George Hirst sidelined along with Clark Robertson.

Warne added: “I have got a couple of issues, but not major issues.

“He (Robertson) won’t be playing a part this weekend, which is sad and blow. It was more through optimism than realism that we thought we might have him back for the final week of the season, but that has not happened.”