In their fight for Sky Bet Championship survival, every passing week has been a ‘big’ one for Rotherham United.
Having had games called off for a combination of both the weather and a covid-19 oubreak at Roundwood, the Millers played an astonishing nine games in the month of April and a big effort was needed for such a mammoth task.
Now, as we enter May, and with the season’s final curtain around the corner, defender Wes Harding has rallied the troops ahead of another important week, starting with tonight’s trip to face Luton Town and ending in the Welsh capital against Cardiff City.
“We’re going into the two games knowing that two wins should be enough to keep us up and that is what we have to aim for,” Harding told www.themillers.co.uk.
“We have to take that mentality into the Luton game before we even think about Cardiff. It has been a difficult month, with a crazy amount of games, but that is gone now and we have to be ready for the next challenge."
“We’re up for the fight, this is the Championship, we all want to earn the right to play here and that is what we’re determined to do until the last whistle.”
Paul Warne’s men do battle at Kenilworth Road tonight, knowing that a three-point-haul would lift them out of the bottom three heading into the final day showdown with the Bluebirds.
The landscape of the second-tier table is constantly changing and swung dramatically once again at the weekend.
With Rotherham trailing at home to Blackburn Rovers and Derby County leading at promotion-chasing Swansea City, their fate looked set to be sealed.
But a quickfire brace for the Swans, coupled with a late equaliser for the Millers, cut the gap between themselves and the Rams to just three points and Harding believes the point against Rovers is a good platform to build on.
“I thought it was a big point. At one point, it wasn’t looking good for us in terms of the table, but we stuck in the game and found that late goal and it means it’s back in our hands again going into a massive week,” Harding explained.
“We weren’t aware of what was happening at Swansea, we just had to concentrate on ourselves and do our job, the only thing we can control is our own performance.
"It shows the fight and the character that we have in the dressing room. We feel like we’ve not been getting the results our performances have merited, so to get a reward for our effort against Blackburn was encouraging, but we now need to kick on.”