West Bromwich Albion v Rotherham United - Millers aim to leave their fate hanging on final encounter

The odds on Rotherham United retaining their Championship status may be long heading into Saturday afternoon’s game at The Hawthorns and while there is realism in the utterances of manager Paul Warne, defeatist tones are undetectable.

Should relegation rivals Millwall win in the early, televised game with Stoke, then the Millers are effectively relegated, but given the Championship’s propensity for the unexpected, strange things may just happen yet.

For Warne, whose staff and players have given everything humanly possible in a season in which they should emerge in credit, even if the spectre of relegation is realised, there would be a certain righteousness if the Millers took their fates to the final day against Middlesbrough tomorrow week.

Few rival managers would be inclined to disagree, with United having received credit from shrewd Championship judges this season, including Chris Wilder, Alex Neil and Tony Pulis, while the Millers efforts have earned admiration and respect from fans of rival sides.

Warne observed: “If someone offered me a point now and Millwall did not win and they did not pick up anything in their game in hand against Bristol City on Tuesday and it went to the last game, it would definitely give the fans something to sing about with a little bit of hope on the last day of the season.

“I look at the Ipswich team who got relegated and the stars they have got in their team and I saw how their fans applauded their team off after their last home game and I was thinking: ‘wow.’

“I would like to think that our fans will be as kind with our players as I do not think you can argue with anyone’s effort and dedication to the cause.

“If we do fall short, then it is on me and no-one else. I just think that if we could take it to the last day, it would be some achievement and who is to say that we do not win the last game of the season and Millwall do not?

“It would give me massive pride if we could take it to the last day. Hence, why the game on Saturday is so important. The Birmingham game did not mean it is over, just that it was more difficult.”

The statistics show that should Rotherham fall out of the Championship, then they can at least be consoled by their levels of competitiveness which have been far removed from their past two relegation campaigns at this level.

Back in 2016-17, United bore the haunted look of bottom-three certainties from the opening weeks of what proved to be a torrid season.

Further back on the previous occasion that the club got demoted from the second tier in 2004-05, the die was also cast from the opening third of the campaign, when an atrocious 20-match winless streak at the start of the season ensured that the Millers looked destined to go down from late autumn onwards.

Whatever happens in the club’s final two matches, Warne, a player in that Noughties line-up, can look back on progress and a season far removed from those two eminently forgettable previous campaigns.

Professing a sense of satisfaction in that regard, he added: “The players have definitely understood what we wanted this season. I know how difficult it is and know there are games where you under-perform.

“Every team everywhere has two or three games per season where you think: ‘oh my God, what has happened there?’ Hardly any teams go through any season without any errors.

“But taking away a couple of performances, I do not think we have had many where we have not gone toe to toe with the best ones. We have not had many defeats like two years ago when we literally did not get in other teams’ half.”

Admittedly, one of the Millers’ most sobering episodes did arrive at the hands of today’s opponents, who turned on the style in an emphatic 4-0 pre-Christmas victory in South Yorkshire.

Just over four months on and fourth-placed Albion find themselves outside of the automatic promotion frame, but with play-off qualification sealed.

The next two matches represent the ‘calm before the storm’ ahead of the play-offs, although the Baggies are likely to be conscious of the merits of taking momentum into the end-of-season lottery.