Rotherham boss Alan Stubbs insists the Millers' Championship fate does not hinge on taking points off 'Premier League' quality teams like Norwich City.

Stubbs has now presided over the worst start to a season for his new club since 1921 but a 3-1 defeat at Carrow Road capped a gruelling run against the current top three.

'I don't think we can argue Norwich deserved to win,' he said. 'I think that we have just played one of the favourites for promotion this season, it was always going to be a difficult game. It is still a Premier League group of players and not much has changed from last season. They have lost maybe one or two and made a couple of additions but the nucleus of the squad has stayed together, which shows you the ambition of the club.

'When we scored our goal you could see signs of nervousness coming into their game and at 2-1 you never know. I put two attacking players on because as far as I am concerned you are as well losing the game 3-1 as 2-1. You can see that the desire and the work rate is there, they are giving everything that they have got. I can't knock them for that.'

Stubbs remains confident Rotherham have enough to mix it with their survival rivals.

'They have to keep putting the effort in; they have to stick together as a team,' he said. 'They have to stay in games and if we keep doing that then we are not going to keep coming up against one, two and three in the division every week. Against Huddersfield and Newcastle we could have got something.

'Here, Norwich were the better team, but it is important when we do play teams in mid-table, and in and around us in the league, we take points off of them. There are very small margins between maybe a dozen teams in this league. You see on Friday how Cardiff beat Bristol City in a close game. That is the way Championship is. Teams in the top six can beat by teams in the bottom six.'