Warne braced for a night of high drama

The Millers and the Iron are level at 2-2 after Saturday's first leg at Glanford Park and another tight contest is in prospect.

While Warne doesn't necessarily think the football on display will be the best, given what's at stake, he promises that a big crowd at the AESSEAL New York Stadium will be treated to no end of drama.

"The game is going to swing and ebb and flow all night," he said. "There will be times when Scunthorpe are on top and we can't get out. There will be times when we are on top and they can't get out.

"There will be times when the game goes calm and other times when it will be manic. There will be penalty claims, there will be corners swinging in, but all that is why people enjoy coming to football.

"It's like unscripted theatre, you don't know what you are going to get.

Good backing... the packed away end at Scunthorpe on Saturday.

"The one thing you will get if you come to the game is excitement. It might not be the best game of football but it means so much to both teams, it's the end of a good season for both. There is so much on it.

"Sometimes in play-off games, I think the quality goes understandably but as a piece of theatre I think it is pretty amazing."

The fitness of Joe Mattock, Michael Ihiekwe and Saturday's goal scorers Jon Taylor and Joe Newell is being monitored, most suffering soreness after a long season.

Warne says he has not yet settled on his starting XI or his formation.

Fitness check...on Joe Mattock, seen here in the thick of the action at Glanford Park.

"I think there is a benefit in moving a player or changing a player will do it. I'm not afraid to change five or six players if that's the case. Most of the decisions we have made this year as a staff have been the right ones so we have to back ourselves and pick the team we think are going to win."

Paul Hurst's Shrewsbury Town await the winners at Wembey on May 27 having put out Charlton over two legs. Whether Rotherham or Scunthorpe make it through to face them, two old Millers team-mates will go head to head in the final. The Iron's interim manager, Nick Daws, played alongside Hurst and Warne in the same Millers team under Ronnie More.

Added Warne: "Out of all the teams in the play-offs, Shrewsbury are the ones who deserve to get to Wembley. I think they were in the top two for more than 200 days in the season so if any team deserves to have a crack at the final, they do."

Just a few hundred tickets remain, available from the Red and White Shop, over the telephone on 01709 827768 or at www.rotherhamunitedshop.co.uk.