IT TAKES ADVERSITY TO bring out the best in people and the footballers of Rotherham United are no exception.

Last week, the staff and players were told that the club may go out of business before the end of the season and that their options were probably limited to liquidation, relegation, or humiliation; all three if they were unlucky. Instead, from somewhere they found inspiration.

At the County Ground on Saturday, Rotherham — £1 million in debt, shedding a further £140,000 a month with more than 100 years of history to their name but no ground of their own and therefore no tangible assets — played like men possessed (make that men repossessed) to register a second successive victory after twice going behind. Lives may not be at stake, but livelihoods are and it showed.

“It was a bombshell when we heard. We knew the club had financial problems, but we didn’t know how bad,” Alan Knill, the Rotherham manager, said. “But when someone says you could be out of a job in four to six weeks, you can go one way or the other. We just got together and said, ‘Let’s go for it.’

“It wasn’t that difficult getting the squad together because it’s not that big and it’s not in most of our natures to sit around and sulk. We decided to be positive and see where it takes us. The players have been brilliant since the news came out. I think it’s pulled us together.”

Back-to-back wins for the first time since August have given Rotherham a fighting chance of avoiding a second successive relegation, even if an heroic rearguard action will count for nothing if the club are forced to the financial wall.

Indeed, such is the compressed nature of the table — ten points separate Doncaster Rovers in ninth from Rotherham in 23rd — that two thirds of the clubs in League One are in a battle against the drop.

Perhaps that ultracompetitiveness explains why nine of the 23 managers to part company with their clubs this season have come from this division. Both these teams have benefited from replacing their managers with their No 2. Knill took over from Mick Harford in December and has guided Rotherham to 17 points from 13 games, while Iffy Onuora has overseen a marked improvement in Swindon since succeeding Andy King in September.

On Saturday, though, it was Rotherham who laughed loudest after a match featuring comedy defending and unstinting effort. Jamie Cureton and Sean O’Hanlon twice gave Swindon the lead, Martin Butler and Shaun Barker replying as 11 minutes produced four forgettable goals and Butler’s winner, a looping header when a long throw was allowed to bounce into the danger area, was in keeping with the untidy, but nonetheless compelling nature of the contest.

“A reality check” was how Onuora described it, but Cureton was blunt. “If we keep playing like that we’ll go down,” the Swindon striker said.