Paul Warne demands fight from his Rotherham United players ahead of Watford clash

Coventry City's Maxime Biamou (left) and Rotherham United's Richard Wood battle for the ball during the Sky Bet Championship match at St Andrews Trillion Trophy Stadium, Birmingham.

The Millers head to Vicarage Road for a daunting challenge against a side who are looking to bounce straight back to the Premier League.

Warne's side could not head there in much of a worse shape, having lost six of their last eight games.

The latest was a disappointing 3-1 loss to Coventry on Saturday, a result that left Warne scratching his head regarding selection for the game at the Hornets.

“I need to make sure that I pick the 11 that are prepared to fight for the shirt, I know that is cliched to say but we definitely need that,” Warne said.

“There are quite a few issues to sort out, obviously. There are quite a few questions bouncing around in my head, we just need to get better at the basics and we didn't address the basics well enough at Coventry to give ourselves a chance to win a football game.

“That aside, the dressing room are pretty close. We have to improve them, but with this amount of games so quick... we have two home games and two away games. Our two home games were good, the start of the away games: poor.

“The same thing was said at QPR and Swansea. We didn't start the game well and then we are chasing our tails.

“On Tuesday I need a team that is going to keep us in the game, start well and be difficult to break down. There are my main issues.”

The Millers will assess the injury to Joe Mattock before the game at Watford.

Mattock came off during the loss at Coventry with an ankle injury and Warne had to wait until Monday to see how the injury was.

“To show how disappointed I was, I haven’t even asked,” the boss said immediately after the Coventry loss at the weekend.

“I haven’t asked after the game, I’ll do that in a minute. I think and presume it’s an ankle – I just presume, I don’t know.”