Grant Ward is adamant Town will not become embroiled in a relegation battle like the one he helped Rotherham to escape last season.

Ward, who cost an initial £500,000 from Tottenham in the summer, featured in 40 league games and scored twice for the Millers last term after leaving White Hart Lane for a loan stint in South Yorkshire.

But the Lewisham-born winger or midfielder believes there is next to no chance of 17th-placed Town being dragged into a similar struggle, despite the fact that they slipped one place closer to the relegation zone after Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with lowly Cardiff.

Asked if he feared a relegation battle, 22-year-old Ward said: “Never, I’m always looking up the table and not down.

“We just need a few good results and we’ll be back where we should be. We are all determined to be moving up the table in the next few weeks.

“It’s been a bit tough for us recently but we’re trying to rectify that in training and by looking back at games. We’re going to try to change that and it doesn’t necessarily take much.

“It could be something little, like someone doing something brilliant in a match, to turn things for us.

“Anything can change it and it’s such a tight league that a couple of wins will soon have us moving up, although we also know that a few losses will see us dropping down towards the relegation zone.

“But we were in a much worse situation last season at Rotherham, something like 11 points adrift at the bottom at one stage.

“Then we got a couple of wins and we were flying. Neil Warnock came in as manager for the last part of the season and he was great for the club.”

Warnock took charge with the Millers just outside the drop zone on goal difference, orchestrating an amazing turnaround during his 16 games in charge.

Not only did he gather 24 points from the 48 on offer, the team also put together an 11-game unbeaten run and eventually avoided what had seemed near-inevitable relegation back to League One with a healthy nine-point gap between them and third-bottom Charlton.

Ward added: “Towards the end of the season, when we were nigh-on safe, he gave us a fair bit of time off. We would play on the Saturday and he would say ‘See you on Thursday’. It was all about belief, him convincing us we could stay up and us reacting to it by working hard to get the results.

“When you’re confident you feel as though you can do anything and once we started winning we tended to keep going.

“On the flip side there were times at the start of the season when we’d maybe go 1-0 up and we tended to get a bit shaky. We would stop playing and try to defend, looking to hold on to what we had, but that didn’t help us.

“We got a few wins and built on them, which is what we need to do now. We need to string a few results together and if we can get a few back-to-back wins it will be a completely different season for us because the league is so tight at the moment.”

Photo: TWTD

lightingblue added 07:11 - Dec 13 In all fairness, if your looking up the table there's more teams to look at
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BrettenhamBlue added 07:47 - Dec 13 He said the same when he was at Rotherham last season.
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howdonblue added 07:57 - Dec 13 Do me a favour mate! UTTER TRIPE
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iaintaylorx added 08:18 - Dec 13 Another player's career has ben ruined by Mick!
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Surco72 added 08:56 - Dec 13 When are you going to be fit enough to last longer than Douglas on the pitch ?
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BlueySwede added 10:48 - Dec 13 Ok, I get it. Some fans are frustrated, including me. But must there be a negative spin and complain on EVERY story? Good player and one of those who need a confidence boost with a couple of wins.
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Bergholtblue added 13:48 - Dec 13 You see the headline, come up with a great post .... then find Lighting blue had beaten me to it!!!!
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