Leam Richardson's message after more away-day woe for relegation-bound Rotherham United

The Millers, who are in bottom spot and could be relegated as soon as Easter Monday's clashed with Millwall, followed up 5-0 away defeats at Coventry City and Norwich City with a 3-0 reverse at Preston North End today.

Richardson took charge in December and knows the drop is coming but is confident he is the man to reverse the club's fortunes in League One next term.

Describing Rotherham as being “in transition” after the reign of predecessor Matt Taylor, he said: “We're in this moment on and off the pitch. We're very aware of it. One thing I will say, I can guarantee it will get better.”

Three first-half goals sent the Millers spiralling to a tenth loss in 11 matches and they are 19 points from safety - and have a huge minus-50 goal difference, by far the worst in the second tier - with seven games left to play.

Richardson is calling on his men to lift themselves for the run-in and inject some pride into their performances in the remaining fixtures.

He said after events at Deepdale this afternoon: “I've just said to the players and the staff: ‘We've got a choice. There's nobody else coming in to help. We've got each other. We either go out with a whimper or we come together and give a good account of ourselves.’”

More than 400 followers, starved of an away win since November 2022, journeyed across the M62 to back their side and were subjected to a hailstorm and persistent rain for their trouble.

“The people I feel for at the minute are the fans,” Richardson said. “It's their club. They live and breathe it every single day. We've got to represent ourselves a lot better than we are doing.

“It's easy to support your team when you're winning. I've just seen those supporters turn up at Deepdale on a wet day and support their side. Full credit to them. I really, really appreciate that and I'm sure the players do.”

Rotherham, who didn't muster a serious effort on target and haven't scored for five games, fell to a 20-minute blast from Duane Holmes and two-goal Emil Riis before the break.

Preston boss Ryan Lowe said of his play-off-chasing side: “I thought the performance was fantastic. We, potentially, could have scored a couple more in the first half. It is just about winning games at this time and we've done that.

“I said to the players beforehand that it was about attitude and application against a team who've got nothing to play for really.

“It could've been a banana skin for the group and, to be fair to them, they didn't allow that to happen.

“We were on the front foot, there were some good passages of play and we scored some good goals.”