MATT Mills is convinced Wanderers will be better prepared for Wolves this weekend after getting caught cold at Rotherham on Tuesday night.

Neil Lennon’s flagging side wilted after their FA Cup exertions at Liverpool, resulting in a 4-2 defeat at the New York Stadium.

But given a few days of rest and relaxation, Mills is positive the team can come out fighting again at the Macron Stadium when their old foes come to town.

“It becomes a really big test for us,” said the defender, who has captained the side in recent weeks during Jay Spearing’s first-team exile.

“You do as much as you can to recover between games but maybe it was a step too far, I don’t know.

“It wasn’t ideal coming off the back of the FA Cup game but that’s the nature of the beast. Now we need to put our efforts into the Wolves game.

“But nothing stops in this division. The games are coming thick and fast for us. We take the Rotherham result on the chin, it hurt but we’ll have to try and learn something from it.

“Performances since the gaffer came in have been phenomenal but we have to accept we let ourselves down at Rotherham, let the fans down, and the only way we can do anything about it is go out and put a performance in on Saturday that makes people forget all about it.”

After finding themselves 4-0 down on Tuesday night, Mills helped lead the fight-back as an auxiliary striker, bringing the score back to 4-2.

But the 28-year-old, who added his fifth goal of the season at Rotherham, admits the result still hurts.

“It stings the pride,” he told The Bolton News. “They weren’t a great side and if we’re on top of our game we should be winning it.

“At the same time words are cheap. You need to follow them through and to be fair to Rotherham they caught us cold and that’s the disappointing thing.

“There are a lot of experienced lads in the dressing room and that kind of result really hurts us.

“We gave it a right good go in the second half and I was happy to get the goal; truth be told I was happier with the little ball for Trots for his (goal).

“But it shows how down to the bare bones we actually are that I was stuck up front.”

Lennon has voiced concern at his lack of options in certain positions – and while Mills maintains there is no need for worry, he admitted a few players are running on empty.

“You’ve got lads who’ve played every game and younger ones coming in trying to make an impression,” he said.

“I think we’ve done fantastically over the last few weeks changing formation and personnel.

“When the manager first came in we had the same team every week but just recently he hasn’t been able to do that. Injuries and so forth have caused issues and it’s not an excuse because I think we’ve adapted quite well.”