Rotherham United v Bristol City: Bench strength is key for Millers chief Evans

Evans’s fourth-placed side, who are seeking to extend their fine league unbeaten run to 14 matches at home to Bristol City this afternoon, served further notice of their credentials with a magnificent 3-0 win over second-placed Brentford on Tuesday.

That cut the gap between the pair to seven points, with the Bees having a game in hand.

Evans insists his priority is on the Millers mathematically nailing down a play-off spot and feels another two wins will do it.

But while he is loathe to openly consider it, you suspect that the prospect of breaking into the top two is a notion he is starting to entertain, inwardly at least.

Evans, who reports no injury worries ahead of the clash with Steve Cotterill’s rejuvenated Robins, said: “I would be nervous if I was second, watching us play as we did against Peterborough and Brentford.

“I would say here is a team who look very focused with a lot of strength on the bench. Because the first thing you do when you are in a promotion race – and we did last year – is look at your starting eleven and then look behind you to see if you can affect the game.

“I don’t see many of them looking behind them and seeing the strength that we have when you consider the other night, we had the likes of Hitchcock, Vuckic, O’Connor, Milsom, Davis and Addison on the bench.

“Wes Thomas was fit, but could not get on the bench and he was our leading striker three games ago.

“If we can keep all the players fit, hopefully we can get the two wins we need to get in the play-offs and if we get into those, hopefully we can have an exciting play-off campaign.”