It's save The Millers time!

Skysports.com recently visited Rotherham to discover the extent of the club's problems.

Having announced that they require a sum of around £1 million in order to continue trading as a football club, it is quite apt that Rotherham United's first subsequent home game should happen to fall on St Valentine's Day.

Roughly 1,735 years after he was beaten and beheaded for giving aid to jailed martyrs, The Millers find themselves trapped in a financial prison of their own, desperate for saviours to emerge and salvage the club from ruin.

The situation at Millmoor is beyond serious. It is now a matter of absolute life and death. If Rotherham are unable to raise the money in order to close a huge funding gap, they will cease trading and themselves become consigned to the history books.

What is going on in South Yorkshire should act as a stark warning to small football clubs around the country. As a result of relegation last season, League One Rotherham have found themselves trying to fund a Championship wage bill with an average gate of just 5,064.

It is easy to see why the club are presently haemorrhaging a staggering £140,000 each month and serious questions need to be asked as to how this situation was allowed to arise in the first place. But for now Millers fans are simply concerned with clawing their way towards the dim light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.

As either manager or coach, former Bury and Scunthorpe defender Alan Knill has seen the club unravel before his eyes and, fresh from masterminding a 2-0 win over Bournemouth, he outlined to skysports.com the true gravity of the situation.

"It would be devastating for Rotherham to lose its football club," he explained. "The town itself has had lots of downs over the last few years.

"There was a steel industry, a coal industry and they lost all that and now the football club is the main focus for the town. For that to go as well would be devastating, but hopefully we'll pull through."

The local football community has already begun to rally around the stricken club with Barnsley stumping up a hugely generous £5,000 cash donation, coupled with an offer to pay the wages of Tykes striker Barry Conlon during the period he spent on loan at Millmoor last season.

Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday fans have donated £4,500 and Sheffield United have decided to step in and pay the wages of on-loan Blades pair Jonathan Forte and Stephen Quinn.

Despite the generosity of the region's football clubs, however, there is a feeling among many Rotherham supporters that the town itself has to take a leading role in shouldering some of the burden.

Millers fan Rob Turner has been attending games for almost 30 years, and he insists that this is a local problem which the town itself needs to address.

"You take it for granted," he admitted. "You come down here and watch a game no matter how well or badly your team are doing.

"To go from a position where we've been trading quite reasonably to a point where we could go into liquidation straight away is a real shock.

"Rotherham's not a big place, it's not famous for anything and the club puts the town on the map. I think it would have a huge knock-on effect throughout the community - especially in the schools, where the club has developed links with junior football."

He added: "It's a question of what the town wants. There's been a hardcore support of around 4,000 fans for many, many years but then you look around the town and wonder how much people really care."

If there is one person who genuinely does care about Rotherham United Football Club, then that has to be diminutive left back Paul Hurst. Born in nearby Sheffield, the 31-year-old joined The Millers as a trainee back in 1993 and celebrated his 350th league start against Bournemouth on Tuesday.

It is increasingly rare for players to spend their entire careers with one club and, as such, Hurst is a genuine breath of fresh air. His concern for the future of the club was tangible when skysports.com spoke to him after Tuesday's win.

"We're aware that we haven't got lots of money to spend but I don't think we realised the situation was quite so bad up until last Thursday when we had a meeting," he revealed.

"It's the old cliche - it is out of our control - but obviously we're behind everything that's going on. There's so many people doing things.

"There's people who have come to the game tonight who would normally support other local teams, so it's nice to see that the football community is getting behind us."

But he is under no illusions as to what is needed in order to guarantee the long-term survival of the club he loves, as he added: "I know that many people have already donated money and I know we have a hardcore support here.

"I'm sure people will help us out. I hope we don't need to ask. We need to get as many fans down here as we can."

Hurst, along with his United team-mates, has already pledged to help the 'Save our Millers' campaign in any possible way that he can. But the final word on the matter has to go to manager Knill.

Understandably upbeat after seeing his side inch further away from the foot of the League One table, the hugely likeable Knill is clearly enjoying his time at Rotherham despite the club's off-the-field tribulations.

His fledgling career in management could easily meet with a premature end, however, if the club fail to raise the £1 million that they so desperately need. When asked if he had anything to say to fans thinking of making a cash contribution to the campaign, his message was simple.

"If you want to see this football club stay alive, please give it. Please. We'll try and give you something back on the pitch."