Millers’ desire gives Warne a blueprint to beat Wednesday
PAUL WARNE believes that Rotherham United’s emphatic second-half showing at Hull City serves as the perfect template to follow in Saturday’s home derby with Sheffield Wednesday.
Second best after a fraught first half which saw Hull deservedly lead 2-0, the Millers produced an outstanding second-half brimful of character and desire as they became the first side to score at the KCOM Stadium this year in a 2-2 draw.
More Yorkshire opponents lie in wait in the Owls on Saturday, the side who Millers followers love to beat more than any other.
After seeing his charges claim an invaluable, if unlikely, point in their battle for Championship survival, the Millers chief is demanding similar intensity levels and hunger in a fixture
which would take care of itself as far as the hosts are concerned.
Warne, whose side scored twice away from home for just the second time this season, said: “The lads will take a lot of positivity. If I had played the second half in the way they did, I would have got on the bus after the game and thought: ‘right I cannot wait for the next day.’
“We will take the confidence and feel good about ourselves for 24 hours and then it all starts again.”
Admitting that his side’s second-half performance was arguably their best of the season so far, he added: “It was possibly. It is the psychology of sport. You can be cruising and then someone can score against you and then all of a sudden, there is a massive swing.
“Nerves kicked in (for Hull) and I just thought: ‘If we can just come in at 2-0 down at half-time, I will take that’ and no two halves are the same in this league.
“You have just got to stay in the game for as long as you can. Hull were brilliant in the first half and we could not put a glove on them.
“For us to come back and get a draw was a big point.”