Shrewsbury Town v Rotherham United: Steve Evans has not yet managed to reverse the wheel

The Millers have four more opportunities to avoid going two years without winning on their travels and two are in the next few days, at Shrewsbury Town on Saturday and Cambridge United on Tuesday.

For the last eight years, Rotherham have swapped divisions every summer bar 2023. They were therefore expected to challenge for League One promotion this season and could yet, but six points from seven games mean they are already five adrift of the play-off places.

As their next two matches are against the sides with the worst starts in the division, this should be an opportunity to make up ground but not having won away since visiting nearby Sheffield United on November 8, 2022, makes that tougher.

"This football club for two years has done nothing but lose football matches so the first thing you try and address as manager is to try and stop that wheel," said Evans. "You can't just suddenly reverse it.

"You have to stop losing football matches, which we've done, but it's more difficult to reverse the wheel. That will come.

"Our performances and our positive play in lots of games have been very good – Huddersfield, Bristol Rovers, Burton should be three straight home wins. Charlton (away) we should win but we've not.

"My job is to ensure we keep confidence in the camp and we keep working hard."

Rotherham have a point from their first three away matches, albeit it at Charlton Athletic.

"It must be so depressing and hurtful not only for the people inside the football club but to our supporters because they pay their hard-earned money to get in the car and on the trains and to go two calendar years without winning a match away from home is pretty damn hard to take," said Evans. "You can't as a manager promise it will happen on Saturday or on Tuesday but we'll be doing everything we can.”

The Millers will be without Liam Kelly for a fortnight, and will check on Mallik Wilks, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Sean Raggett, with Evans clear the situation will not push him into risks on fitness.