Rotherham United v Ipswich Town: Millers ready to seize chance to put pressure on top two

When Rotherham United were flying high in League One, unbeaten in 21 games, top of the tree at Christmas, or when they went again in the new year, winning eight matches and a penalty shoot-out in a run of 11 undefeated, Paul Warne was picking holes in it.

Now they have just two wins in nine - even if one picked up a trophy at Wembley - and have slipped to third place on the back of three consecutive league defeats, the criticism has become a trickle, Warne is more concerned about lifting his players up than knocking them down for a potentially huge match at home to Ipswich Town this lunchtime.

The Tractor Boys are now on a Rotherham-esque run under Kieran McKenna, the early April defeat to Cambridge United their only bad luck in 13 games.

But a slightly bizarre Easter fixture list means a victory will put the Millers into the automatic promotion spot that is their first, second and third priority this season, briefly back on equal terms with regards to games played with in-form Milton Keynes Dons.

Rotherham play a day later than the bulk of League One for the benefit of television but leaders Wigan Athletic, at home to Cambridge United, and the Dons, at home to Sheffield Wednesday, play later still today for the Sky subscribers so Warne needs to put his players in the right frame of mind to deflate, not encourage, their rivals.

“When we beat Accrington (in February) I was not best pleased and I’ve had many a time when a reporter has said to me after a win, ‘Wow, enjoy it, you’ve got a face like thunder’,” says Warne.

“I’m not one of them who comes in after a win where we’ve been rubbish and go, ‘What a performance, we battered them today!’ I’ve been told by two different managers if you’re away from home and you lose, just tell everyone you were great because there wasn’t anyone at the game. I’m never that guy, I’m the opposite. I get reprimanded for being too candid at times.

“But when the team have won and been poop, they’re more open to criticism. You don’t have to protect egos so much and they’re obviously in the meeting thinking, ‘Yeah, okay, you’re right gaffer, but we still won didn’t we?’ and I’m saying, ‘Yeah, but what about if this had gone in?’

“When you lose and play well, that’s okay because you’re going to lose football matches. If your performances are really good, the results are going to come. However, if you play poorly and lose, that’s the double-whammy.

“When that happens, you’ve got to be careful you don’t overstep it. If I overstepped it in Thursday’s meeting and they left the room feeling deflated, they’re human, they’re just going to take that into the game and they might get a decision go against them in the tenth minute, they (Ipswich) put a corner in, they score, and then they (Warne’s players) are deflated.

“You’ve just got to try and get the message right but there isn’t an equation of three jokes times two cups of tea plus a bit of feedback equals a great performance. You just try and get a feel of the room like I did when we had our meeting on Thursday.

“I tried to see how they were, show them a lot of opportunities where we could have done better in the final third - there were a lot of good balls in but the movements of the strikers weren’t good enough - and I showed them a couple of moments where we got cut open and let ourselves down on the non-negotiables, the set pieces.

“It is more difficult after a defeat, that is for certain, because you don’t want the lads to leave the room when a game is coming up in three days feeling low.

“If it was Saturday to Saturday you’ve got a bit more time to knock them down and build up, build up, build up.

“We didn’t do a lot of training on Thursday, a little bit in the classroom, a little bit on the grass and I tried to send them away happy to their end-of-season do that night.

“I’ve also got to be positive around the staff because they’re licking their wounds and I have got to try and big everyone up to have a right go against Ipswich Town.”