Rotherham United manager Neil Redfearn urged his struggling side to be like Ipswich Town, before their latest Championship success at the weekend.

The Millers ran out comfortable 3-0 winners against Bristol City at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, following on from a 1-0 victory at Leeds the weekend earlier.

Those two wins represented manager Neil Redfearn’s first as Millers boss and were in stark contrast to the 5-2 drubbing they suffered at the hands of the Blues last month, prior to the international break.

Daryl Murphy scored a hat-trick that day, while Brett Pitman and Jonathan Douglas also got on the scoresheet, and Redfearn said after Saturday’s win: “I mentioned it in my pre-match talk, Ipswich and the valuable lesson they taught us about life in this division when they beat us at home.

“Basically, for 20 to 25 minutes, Ipswich beat us up. They kept slinging it in behind us, turning us round.

They got the midfielders up the pitch and won every second ball. It crushed us.

“We want to come out and do something similar, and I think the boys are buying into it.”

Rotherham endured a tricky start against the in-form Robins, but they way they played after Jonson Clarke-Harris had fired them into a 10th-minute lead had echoes of Mick McCarthy’s play-off chasers.

“When we got the goal, it started going that way round for us,” Redfearn said.

“We started getting in behind and turning them and anything that popped out into midfield we picked up. It’s difficult to play against because you start to get a stranglehold on the game.”

“Before we kicked off, I watch Ipswich play Charlton. Mick knows the division and understands the division.

“By and large, when you wrestle the initiative away from sides, you tend to get a foothold in the game, and then football takes care of itself because we have got players who can play.”

Town midfielder, Luke Hyam, on-loan at Rotherham, made his Millers’ debut in Saturday’s victory against Bristol.

The 24-year-old, recovering from a long-term knee injury, came on as an 82nd-minute substitute, replacing Joe Newell.