Paul Warne says Rotherham United players were not 'crying like under-8s' with a second-chance Saturday to win automatic promotion from League One

After 87 minutes of the game at the Stadium of Light, the Millers were on course for a 1-0 victory which would have needed an improbable set of final-day results to deny them promotion.

As it was, Michael Ihiekwe's own goal a minute later means the job is not done yet, but victory at relegation-threatened Gillingham on Saturday will send them back into the Championship after 12 months away.

Just matching what third-placed Milton Keynes Dons do will suffice, and a victory coupled with Wigan Athletic's winless run being extended to six matches at Shrewsbury Town will even bring the title.

The worst-case scenario is that Rotherham will have to win the play-offs to go up, not that they will want to be thinking about that unless or until Saturday's results force them to.

So Warne did not go into training on Thursday expecting he would have to lift morale.

"When I first went into the dressing room (on Tuesday) I told them how good they were and if you'd have said to me prior to Oxford and Sunderland we'd take four points (as they did), I'd have taken it," he argued.

"On the 87th minute, if you'd have offered me four points, I'd have told you to stick it.

"I'm not saying football isn't fair, it was a close game and I'm not saying they possibly didn't deserve a point but straight away after the game we had everybody there, all the injured lads too.

"Everyone was licking their wounds but by the time they got on the bus they were fine because they know they've got another opportunity.

"Say for example we had to win our last two to get promoted or to get into the play-offs and we conceded an 88th-minute goal which meant it was the end of our season I could understand why they'd be really downbeat about it but that isn't the case, they've got another opportunity and no negative thought is going to help them now.

"There's no point sulking. It's not like an under-8s league where we haven't gone home with the trophy and the kids are crying in the back seat, we just have to get on with it.

"I don't dispute a few of them in the shower would have been thinking, 'If only, if only,' but 'if onlys' get you nothing.

"They're absolutely fine. They had Wednesday off and I spoke to a couple of them but I've sort of left them alone."

Warne has reported no injury concerns from the Stadium of Light and given how well his team played for much of the game, it would be a big surprise if the squad changed much at all.

Gillingham will have their pressures too on Saturday, needing to outdo Fleetwood Town's result at Bolton Wanderers. Although it is still technically possible for Doncaster Rovers to get a win which sends both down, it will have to be a record-breaking scoreline to do so.

Having lost a relegation battle in last season's Championship, the pressure Rotherham put themselves under at the weekend will be a much more enjoyable one.

"The meeting for the Gillingham game will be nothing but positivity from me and the staff and I expect the lads to be in good fettle," said Warne.

"If I thought about it as a footballer I'd just think, 'It is what it is, the final whistle's gone, there's nothing I can do, I'll wait for the manager to pull us out of the mire and sort it out for Saturday!' That's how you think as a player."