Steve McClaren on how Tony Stewart will respond to Rotherham United fan unrest

Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart has been described as 'a fighter' who won't bow to pressure from a section of supporters to sell the club after nearly two decades at the helm.

The last 18 years have brought five promotions, four trips to Wembley and the building of AESSEAL New York Stadium, but things have soured recently as the Millers have dropped from the Championship to a place just above the League Two relegation spots.

Stewart is now in his early 80s, but head of football Steve McClaren says he still possesses the same passion he had when he rescued the club from administration in 2008.

"You're fuelling the fire with him," McClaren told the Advertiser. "The more criticism you give him, the more he wants to fight, the more he wants to win. That's why he's stayed in charge for the last 18 years and been successful with Rotherham.

"He didn't fall down at the first challenge or first bad time. He doesn't do that, I know that. He's built a business and a football club on not doing that.

"Yes, many people might question the age thing. But, believe you me, I speak to him most days, I have dinner with him every Friday and his energy is unbelievable. He has far more than I've got! And he wants Rotherham to be successful."

Some fans chanted for the chairman to sell up during the 2-0 loss at Fleetwood Town on October 17 and an online petition calling for the same thing has since attracted nearly 900 shows of support.

McClaren believes Stewart is approaching a stage where he's ready to step away and will do it on his own terms.

"Can he continue forever? No," the former England boss said. "And he does know that. Are there people who want to help in building up Rotherham again? Yes, there are.

"But Tony's the number one, and he wants nothing but the best for Rotherham. I talk about energy a lot, and energy is key to a football club. I see energy every time I see Tony. He plays golf three times a week and three times a week he wins. When he starts losing at golf, I'll start to worry!"

Stewart has spoken in the past of contact being made over the years by a number of people and groups wanting to take over the club.

It is believed there have been approaches this year as well, but McClaren denied knowledge of any talks taking place right now.

"Not that I'm aware of," he said. "Tony and I do talk about that, we do. Like with every football club, there are always people interested. All I do is suggest what I think this club needs to go forward. And he listens. Everybody is always looking around for investment, for more money. We're no different. With a little bit more money, we could do this, we could do that."

Many fans are concerned that the Millers could slip out of the EFL for the first time in their history.

However, McClaren is confident that the group of players he has assembled in the first four months of a rebuilding mission with head coach Alex Bruce will soon start climbing the table.

"We all want it yesterday," the head of football said. "It doesn't work like that. Tony understands that. What we do is, he tries to explain the logic of the finance side to me and I explain the logic of the football side to him. Sometimes he believes me, sometimes I believe him, sometimes not. But we have good debates about it.

"He wants more, I want more. That's what we're demanding every day from Alex, from his staff, from the players. We're quite cool about it and not worried about it, but we need to start winning and we need to start performing.

"The big word for me is 'consistency'. We've failed to have that for one reason, which is injuries. Injuries have affected consistency of shape and selection.

"When I look at the league, I see the teams at the top being consistent in their performance. I'm not saying their performances are wildly great, I'm just saying they know what they're doing and they're consistent in what they do.

"We have to find that consistency in what we do. When we find that, we have got the squad to quickly move up this division."