Why mum's the word for Rotherham United midfielder Dan Barlaser

As it stands, it has all the portents of being a nip-and-tuck race for survival right down to the wire in 2020-21, with the Millers currently doing it tough on the back of a four-match winless streak.

The chance to salvage something from a disappointing week results-wise arrives on Saturday when they welcome play-off candidates Reading, who have had a testing week themselves by virtue of back-to-back defeats.

In the capricious Championship things can change fast as the Millers well know after some positive results already in a New Year which saw them win four games out of six in a fine run between mid-January and early February - ahead of their dip in results if not neccessarily form.

A forgettable midweek saw the Millers lose against Nottingham Forest, but it is assuaged by the fact that fellow relegation candidates Birmingham City, Coventry City, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town also losing.

Time remains on the Millers’ side with games in hand on their rivals and while the table won’t be overly scrutinized by Barlaser, the news will probably quickly filter through in any case.

He said: “I don’t look at the table, but my mum might and tell us (what is happening).

“I am not bothered about that, but the next game and trying to perform for this football club. We need to get ourselves out sooner rather than later.

“In the games before the international break, we need to get out of the bottom three by then or be by the time we have our games in hand.

“We will always stay in games. But when the chances come along, we need to finish them. With the Forest goal, they had a lucky bounce and we have not had that recently and it is a tough one to take when you lose like that.

“We could have definitely got a draw with the chances we had. It is a tough one, we could have probably nicked it after hitting the bar as well. We just need to take out chances.”

Adamant that the Millers must keep their calm after their run of defeats and retain perspective, he added: “Results went our way (on Tuesday) and if you get two or three results on the bounce, you are looking further up the table.

“We have had a bad week and a half. But Reading got beaten by Wycombe and anyone can beat anyone in this league and we need to get some points going into the Sheffield Wednesday game, so we can start looking forward.”