Rotherham United manager search: Wayne Carlisle set to take charge on Saturday with Nathan Jones unlikely to join

Jones is understood to have been interviewed for the job this week but the feeling is that both parties will move in different directions as the Millers continue to search for a replacement for Matt Taylor, sacked on November 11.

Carlisle has been in temporary charge since, but admits his chances of the permanent job are slim after Tuesday’s 4-1 defeat at Hull City showed the relegation-threatened side are no closer to solving the conundrum of their away form.

Carlisle led the team to a battling 1-1 draw with Leeds United, following up their 2-2 with Ipswich Town in the previous game at the New York Stadium.

But only one of their 12 points has come away and they have not won on their travels for over a year, a period Carlisle has been on the coaching staff throughout, previously as Taylor's assistant.

He called his club's away form “a mystery” and, combined with a late win for Queens Park Rangers, it has dropped them to 23rd in the Championship.

Jones, who had a brief loan at Scarborough as a player, made his name laying the foundations for Luton Town's rise from League Two, as they were when he took over in 2016, to the Premier League in two spells broken by a 2019 stint with Stoke City. Last year he left for then-Premier League Southampton but was sacked after just 14 matches.

The Welshman is not the only candidate believed to have been interviewed this week. Gary Rowett and Leeds-born Leam Richardson remain strongly linked.

Tuesday's defeat, when Rotherham went 3-0 down inside 20 minutes, would appear to have ended Carlisle's slim chances of making chairman Tony Stewart divert from his plan of appointing someone with Championship experience.

“I think it will be someone else, I've got to be honest,” he said. “The chairman and the club, I think they looked elsewhere in the last few days from what I can gather

“I hope I'm still in the frame but the reality is I'll have to wait and see.”

The new man simply must get to grips with the away form, which is why letting two matches pass by without an appointment would seem a waste if it happens.

Jamie Lindsay stressed it was down to the players to transfer their dogged home form over.

“It's up to us as players to show that we wan to get out of it and can get out of it,” said the midfielder.

“We just need to try and replicate the home games away from home. I'm sure we will because we know what's in the dressing room. It's just finding the balance.”

Rotherham could be without Fred Onyedinma on Saturday after he felt a problem in Tuesday's warm-up.

“He walked over and said his hamstring was tight,” revealed Carlisle. “He felt it would go properly. It was a decision between Seb Revan and Arvin (Appiah to replace him on Tuesday). Because Seb's probably more defensive-minded we went with him.”