Self-styled '˜Red Adair' Neil Warnock could be Rotherham United's X-Factor winner

The Millers are expected to make an announcement ahead of this weekend’s home game with Birmingham City, with Warnock set to be handed the managerial post for the rest of the season.

Other candidates are understood to include former Sheffield Wednesday head coach Stuart Gray, on the coaching staff at Fulham and ex-Blackburn manager Gary Bowyer, with the Millers intent on appointing someone with proven Championship experience.

Ex-Rotherham player Warnock, who has previously managed in Yorkshire with Sheffield United, Leeds United and Huddersfield Town, as well as Scarborough, recently worked as an advisor to QPR prior to the appointment of Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink in December.

After leaving the R’s, Warnock, 67, said that he saw his future as a ‘Red Adair of football’ with a short-term fire-fighting brief of turning around a club’s fortunes.

Meanwhile, chairman Tony Stewart has revealed that the club are seeking an ‘X-Factor’ candidate to help stave off the drop, with the Millers falling into the bottom three after their damaging weekend loss at relegation rivals Bolton.

Stewart said: “There’s 16 games to go and 48 points to play for. It’s not mission impossible.

“It took us a long time to get here, so we are not going to just walk away; we’re going to fight.

“There’s a lot of managers out of work. But when you filter that down, we are looking for someone who has got that experience and X-Factor. There’s two or three we are interested in.

“We have had lots of applications. The run-of-the-mill merry-go-ones and some good ones from people in and out of jobs. It’s been quite flattering.

“It is commendable that certain people are saying ‘look, let’s just have the 16 games’. People out there like a challenge.”

Former Millers manager Ronnie Moore has parted company with League Two strugglers Hartlepool United.