Rotherham United: Evans aiming to keep loan quartet

All four have proved influential figures in the Millers’ December renaissance, with the club heading into tomorrow’s Championship game at rock-bottom Blackpool on the back of a five-match unbeaten sequence.

The Millers left it late to continue that run on Boxing Day with late goals in the final two minutes of normal time from substitutes Jonson Clarke-Harris and Lee Frecklington rescuing a point in a 2-2 derby draw with Huddersfield Town.

Despite a performance which failed to hit the heights of the past few weeks, the Millers showed their spirit to chisel out a point, with the club determined to build on a positive December in the new year.

High on the agenda is keeping hold of the loan quartet who joined just before the closure of the emergency loan window, with their deals expiring next month.

Evans said: “There was some work going on just before we broke for Christmas and the players have made clear to us they would love to stay and to their parent clubs.

“But as we have always respected, it is the right of those parent clubs to decide whether they can continue with us.

“If they don’t, we have other options to come in without being blasé. We obviously have to work on alternatives.

“We will have a few little changes in January and hopefully they will make us better.

Evans named an unchanged starting line-up for the fourth successive match in the draw with Huddersfield, but the performances of substitutes Clarke-Harris and Frecklington are likely to have given him food for thought ahead of the trip to Bloomfield Road, where the Millers will take the field for their second game in 48 hours.

Evans added: “There were a lot of tired people in the dressing room. I think the emotion and the willingness to drive forward is easier when you are 2-0 up and trying to see a game out when you run less because the team who are trying to break you down have to do more with the ball and do the running.

“But I have said with these young players that I am brave enough to have brought them in and I am brave enough to keep picking them.

Hailing goalscorers Clarke-Harris and Frecklington, the Millers chief said: “I am delighted for them because both have been fighting so hard to get in the team. Jonson Clarke-Harris got two goals last week in a behind-closed-doors game at Manchester United. Both were super finishes.

“The rest of the bench wanted me to change it in a different direction (for the Huddersfield game). But I have always said, you earn your rights and if you are Jonno, you think if you go away and get two goals in a reserve game, you should certainly play or get a chance to get onto the field.

“So I was delighted when he scored.

“And there’s not a player in the whole club who you would rather see get an equaliser than Lee Frecklington. He has been a reason why we are playing in the Championship.

“He’s never frightened to strike or miss.”