Promotion would be icing on cake in Pringle’s dream season

The midfielder was the shining light in the Millers’ thrilling 3-1 League One play-off semi-final second leg victory over Preston on Thursday night, setting up the hosts’ first two goals in a consummate man-of-the-match showing.

The former Derby County player displayed plenty of the class which saw his peers choose him in the divisional team of the year in April, with several Championship clubs, including Huddersfield Town, tipped to make a summer move.

But Pringle’s sole focus is turning an excellent season into a truly magnificent one by beating Leyton Orient in eight days time after the 4-2 aggregate success over Simon Grayson’s North End.

He said: “To be named in the team of the season is brilliant for me, but if we win next Sunday, it will be unbelievable. We’ll have to wait and see.

“When we got Preston back to our place, we knew what it was going to be like. with all the big games we have played here such as the Sheffield Wednesday one.

“When we have played teams before in the past and it’s been rocking here, teams can’t happen it, especially the way we play and start. We were brilliant against Preston.

“To get a 1-1 draw away at Preston was massive and not many teams in the division would have done that. Then to beat them 3-1; only us and Wolves could have done that really.

“But I kept saying we haven’t done anything yet. It’s great we have got to the final, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens next Sunday.”

Delighted Millers chief Steve Evans is now busy plotting his first visit to Wembley as a manager, but his main driver is taking the club back to the Championship for the first time since 2004-05.

If the Millers beat Orient, they will emulate the achievement of Ronnie Moore’s class of the early noughties, who achieved back-to-back promotions to the Championship, which Evans feels would represent a stellar feat.

Evans said: “It would be stunning if we did it. Me and my assistant Paul Raynor are looking for a fourth successive promotion, which would be fantastic.

“This football club achieved back-to-back promotions before under a legend in Ronnie Moore and when I came in, I genuinely came because I thought I could deliver it.

“We have taken ourselves to the final fence. But there’s a lot of top-class racehorses would have fallen at Beeches Brook.”