What Rotherham United boss Matt Taylor and Manchester United's Erik ten Hag have in common

The Rotherham United chief can vividly recall the pain to this day of his former club Exeter City suffering play-off heartache for the third time in four years when his side were hammered 4-0 in the League Two final at Wembley in June 2020.

Demons were finally exorcised for Taylor and others involved when the Grecians were promoted at the end of 2021-22.

Character must come to the fore if Taylor's current side are to retain their Championship status come 5pm on May 8 and achieve their cherished mission.

Taylor said: "I always tell anyone who cares to listen that I learned the most about myself and my group of (Exeter) players when we got beaten 4-0 at Wembley. It was my darkest day as a manager.

"You’ll always get beaten at times, but really find out what your group is about when you are up against it and things are going against us.

"I am still learning about the group and I am sure they are still learning a little bit about myself.

"I can guarantee (Erik) Ten Hag will have learned an awful lot more about his group of (Manchester United) players by that defeat against Liverpool than he would in a cup final win or versus Barcelona."

The international break looks well timed for the Millers, who lost successive games to Birmingham City and Preston North End before comprehensively being second best to Cardiff City before the elements intervened and forced their weekend game to be abandoned after 48 minutes.

The game will be rescheduled for the run-in when they face several leading sides in a test of nerve.

In terms of his recent signings, Taylor will also find out a fair bit.

He added: "It's the work we go into and due diligence of not just a playing capacity, but how they (players) would fit into the group and character has to be spot-on and right.

"Man-management is all about trust and I have to trust my staff and players and what the club is trying to do in the overall plan. In the playing capacity, I have got to know those characteristics stay in the right position no matter what."