Will Vaulks confident Rotherham United can survive without new faces

Rotherham's Will Vaulks says the self-belief within the Millers squad in their ability to survive in the Championship remains strong.

Vaulks’s assertion currently rings true – just – with Rotherham climbing out of the relegation zone on New Year’s Day courtesy of victory over Preston North End.

But the fact they could only name six players on the bench instead of seven – two of which were untested teenagers – suggests a big month lies ahead in the transfer market.

Rotherham were without Richie Towell and Billy Jones through suspension, Clark Robertson and Zak Vyner with injuries, and Ryan Manning has been recalled by QPR.

It left manager Paul Warne scrambling to bring back striker Jerry Yates from a loan deal at Carlisle just to have six bodies on the bench to face fellow strugglers Preston.

But midfielder Vaulks, who opened the scoring with a fierce free-kick, admitted: “I’m sure the manager wants to bring in a couple of players. But we know what the budget is and we won’t be paying millions of pounds, that’s for sure.

“So you’ve got to find a bargain and find the right characters that want to play at this level and have that desire to push on – and that’s hard to find.

“But we believe in the group we’ve got and if we can get a couple back fit, I’m not going to be gutted if we don’t sign anybody.

“We’ve got a good group, we’ve shown that. I firmly believe we’re good enough to stay up, definitely.”