Rotherham United aim to cash in on leaderless Reading FC

If the Millers beat the managerless Royals then they will move to 24 points, eclipsing the 23 they achieved in the entire 2016/17 campaign in this division.

There can be no better testament to the job that boss Paul Warne has done at the AESSEAL New York Stadium than that, even if he was in charge for the second half of that horror season.

Nine of their 21 points so far have come from draws and a good number of those should have been wins.

And Warne knows the importance of turning some of the one-pointers into three-pointers.

'Unfortunately I was at the helm for six of those months,' he said of his side's points tally two years ago.

'We have been playing really well and we are unfortunate we just haven't turned a few draws into wins but I am also aware that it could go the other way and I don't want to keep looking behind myself and be thinking, 'If we don't win and they win, it's a horrendous place to be'.

'We are really pleased how things are going at the moment but football is a tough at the best of times so we need to keep our impetus.'

Surpassing that record is unlikely to be too high on the Millers' list of priorities at the weekend as they try and take points off a side in the bottom three.

Following last weekend's draw at Sheffield Wednesday '“ another game they should have won '“ they continue in a 'crunch period' over the next six weeks where they take on the Royals, Bolton, Preston and Ipswich.

That run of games could define their season and Warne wants to see his side collect a big haul.

'It is a crunch period,' he added. 'We need to get some wins in, obviously.

'We were looking at our fixtures and looking at our last month and our last month doesn't look great.

'So these fixtures are potential games for us to win. Although as cheesy as it sounds we set up in all the games to win.

'On paper, these are games we need to get some points from.'