The impact of Zak Jules in Rotherham United's latest victory

Zak Jules has struggled to find his best form in the opening stages of the League One campaign and has found himself on the bench at times.

But, with the Millers squad heavily depleted by sickness yesterday, the 28-year-old was superb at the heart of the defence in the 1-0 home triumph over Leyton Orient that gave Hamshaw's men a third successive win and catapulted them towards a mid-table spot.

“Zak was a leader,” said the boss of the centre-half who capped his performance with a crucial stoppage-time block that made sure of the three points. “He won his headers, he put his body on the line.”

Jules' presence also brought out the best in the player at the side of him, young loanee Jamal Baptiste who put a jittery start behind to grow stronger and stronger through the game.

“Bap's been going through a bit of a tough time recently – I think he'd probably admit that himself – and I think that Zak's helped him through, which is a sign of the character of the man,” Hamshaw said.

It was a good day for Rotherham's defence as they recorded only their second league shut-out this term and also welcomed back Sean Raggett who was introduced as a late substitute after nearly two months out with a quad injury.

“It was good to bring on a bit more experience with Rags,” Hamshaw said minutes after the final whistle.

”The good thing is, it's a clean sheet. Whenever you get a clean sheet, you obviously get at least a point. We want more clean sheets than we've had. We should have had one at Northampton Town (2-1 win a week earlier) and we deserved the one today.”

The Millers survived late pressure from the visitors and, as well as Jules' last-gasp intervention, a point-blank Cameron Dawson save from Omar Beckles' header and a Kian Spence block on Sonny Perkins' follow-up helped them over the line.

“I thought that, defensively, we looked quite resolute,” Hamshaw said. “Look, teams are always going to create chances against you. Orient came here as joint-top scorers, but I thought that, by and large, we limited them to very little, really.”

Spence's goalline clearance was one of many good contributions from the summer signing who was in the starting line-up only because Denzel Hall pulled out with illness during the warm-up.

“I thought Kian did well,” Hamshaw said. “I played him in a different position today – as a 6 , not as an 8 or 10 – and I thought he kept his discipline really well. I thought he and Gorey (Dan Gore) did really well together.

“I moved Powelly (Joe Powell out to left wing-back and I thought he was excellent. Shaun McWilliams did another job at right wing-back. He didn't know he was playing there until 40 minutes before kick-off.

“All in all, we were excellent.”