Steve Evans and rival boss Garry Monk react to Rotherham United's win over Cambridge United

The Millers had looked out of sorts before half-time and fell behind soon after the restart in the League One clash.

However, they responded by upping their game and scoring twice to keep alive their hopes of making a late-season surge into the play-off reckoning.

Victory was vital after a loss at Burton Albion three days earlier had ended the club's six-match unbeaten run and damaged their momentum.

“The goal goes against us but I think that sparked four or five of our players who had looked sluggish in the first half," Evans said. “The character was about bouncing back from Saturday.

“Cambridge are a much improved team so it was always going to be tough.”

The U's had arrived at New York on the back of a weekend win over Mansfield but that had been their first triumph in nine outings and they ended proceedings tonight in 23rd spot.

Evans added: “In the first half you had a Cambridge team with no intent to go forward. They wanted to sit behind the ball and get what they got in the second half.

“We did not move the ball with any purpose or close down or pass with a purpose until we went behind.”

The Millers cancelled out Ryan Loft's opener with a Mallik Wilks header and then went ahead with a clinical, first-time finish from Hakeem Odoffin.

Despite their win, they dropped a place in the table to 14th, but are only seven points outside the top six.

Cambridge head coach Garry Monk was left frustrated as he felt the home side's first goal should have been disallowed.

“I thought it was an even game in the first half,” he said. “The crowd was quite flat, which was good for us.

“I felt we could have played with more urgency and we spoke about that at half-time.

“We started the second half really well, managed to get the lead and everything was going to plan.

“To get that first goal against us was a blow. It’s a foul on Kell (Watts). The referee has to see it because it was a two-handed shove in his back. “The second goal, I was more disappointed with. that There was naivety in that moment. We should have been a bit more streetwise.

“We tried to bring on fresh legs and mix it up a bit to get back into it but, quite rightly, it was Rotherham's prerogative to make it scrappy and delay things. We couldn’t find the quality moment we needed.”