LEEDS United boss Darko Milanic has admitted he had hardly heard of Rotherham before arriving in England late last month - but added he now has the utmost respect for his club’s Yorkshire rivals.

Leeds go to New York Stadium tonight (7.45pm) for a televised Sky Bet Championship clash, with Rotherham, after back-to-back promotions, sitting 17th in the table, three places below their visitors.

Milanic, who replaced David Hockaday in the Elland Road hot seat, has watched video footage and listened to scouting reports about the Millers and says he now knows “a lot” about them. Unlike previously.

“I didn’t see them live but with our scouts and myself, we’ve watched games and I think we are well prepared,” he said when asked how much he knows about the hosts.

“They are extremely prepared and hard workers. They do a lot of pressing, a lot of simple play - direct to the striker and they are very good at taking the second ball. They can be dangerous from that.

“I have to be honest, (before I arrived) not so much. But now I know, I have full respect for them.

“Somebody said to me that the stadium is sold out so that means this game is extremely important for them. But it is also for us.”

Milanic confirmed academy manager Neil Redfearn will not be in the dugout at New York Stadium.

Leeds president Massimo Cellino said when he appointed Milanic that Redfearn would still be involved in first-team affairs, but the Slovenian says he is too busy with academy duties.

Redfearn had been linked - incorrectly, The Press can confirm - to the recent managerial vacancy at York after guiding Leeds to three wins and a draw during his latest spell as caretaker-boss.

Defender Stephen Warnock is to return to Leeds’ side, but hinted Brazilian midfielder Adryan, on the bench in the home draw against Sheffield Wednesday before the international break, was not ready to make his full debut.

Rotherham manager Steve Evans, meanwhile, believes the chance to go above Leeds in the table is a mark of how far they have progressed in recent years.

A win by two goals or more over the West Yorkshire club in their first league meeting since 2005 would see Evans’ men leapfrog their more illustrious opponents, marking an impressive rise from the days when they nearly went out of business as a League Two outfit in 2008.

Evans said: “If we all take our biased heads off, Leeds United are the stand-out giants in the Championship,” he said. “But we are on a level playing field and we know a good result will take us above them in the table and to measure that progress in the two years I have been here is staggering.

“We want to be above Leeds tomorrow night at 10 o’clock.”

The Millers will be without former Leeds striker Luciano Becchio after he fractured a heel in training.