Evans sees positives in defeat

The Millers dominated the contest from start to finish but struggled to find a way through a packed defence and fell 2-1 to two strikes from former player Deon Burton. Jason Taylor replied on 69 minutes but the visitors hung on to maintain top spot and go ten points clear of Evans' men, who drop to fifth.

Evans said: "If that's the benchmark, we've shown we can beat it. People around the country will see the scoreline but the people at the game will know the (true story).

"We absolutely battered them from start to finish and played some super stuff but they scored two and we scored one and it's a results business.

"If we play like that every week then we'll win promotion."

Burton was involved in the first-half incident that led to Rotherham skipper Ian Sharps retiring from the action with a suspected broken nose.

Evans called it a "shocking, late, nasty and vindictive challenge" and intends to raise the matter with the Football League.

Rotherham are also monitoring the fitness of Kari Arnason before tomorrow night's FA Cup second round reply at Notts County. He picked up a knock on his return to the side.