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Rotherham arrive at Turf Moor tomorrow under new management. Neil Warnock was appointed just over a week ago and was involved last week, but tomorrow will be his first game in charge after spending time with the squad.

He’s been brought in to try to rescue the season and he’s compared it to when he joined Torquay in 1993. “I remember it well,” he said. “People said: ‘You can’t go to Torquay. They could get kicked out of the league and it will be on your CV.’

“Do you know, the players there went through brick walls for me and it was one of the happiest times of my life. They were a genuine bunch and these are a genuine bunch. They know we can get out of this, but they know they have to do the things we want them to do.

“It will take every player giving me everything to stay up. We can use the underdog status in most of the games between now and the end of the season and I think we can cause a few upsets. I went to Torquay because I fancied it. Like here, I fancy it.”

1415 burnley sean dyche 00 630x420He added: “You look at the fixtures and the size of the club, you look at everything required to do it, and staying up would be on a par with any of my seven promotions. Football people would say I’m mad to take it on.”

He’s taken Kevin Blackwell in with him and said: “I did fear the worst, to be honest. looking from the outside. I think us coming has given things a lift.

“Against the lesser teams you’ve got to be spot on. Players have to know how important those games are because if you go out and you’re not ready for a fight you’ll get turned over whereas against the top teams you already know you’re in a fight.”

Burnley are suddenly being mentioned as promotion candidates but Sean Dyche has everyone’s feet on the ground and said that there will be no complacency within the camp.

He said: “We are a bigger concern that we were two years ago and a more serious one. That has changed the perception from outside I think, but the reality of the situation is that we don’t look at the Rotherham game like that.

“We respect every team that we come up against and we certainly don’t go into games thinking we are favourites, so this will be the outcome. You have to earn that right in every game and we talk a lot to the players about it. There are no gimmes in football. We have seen recently the situation with MK taking a point from Middlesbrough and three at Derby.

“We know the reality of the challenge in a tough league and in this topsy-turvy league you have to make sure you focus on every game, which we have made a really strong showing of. You want belief, but that belief can’t become arrogance and I’m really pleased that we don’t do that.”

Up against Warnock, Dyche does not share the view of some previous Burnley managers. He said of him: “Neil is one of only a few managers with more than 1,000 games under his belt and he knows this division and his record is good.

“He’s got a couple of people in to change their psychology. He will have his own format, that he’s worked with many times and been successful with, and I don’t think he’ll go miles away from that.

“He knows the challenge with Rotherham is to keep them in the league and our challenge is different, but I know we will both be ready and the teams will be ready. We have to play better than them and keep the back door shut and therein lies the challenge. Everything else is just outside noise.”

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