Mark Robins heaped praise on hat-trick hero Ellis Simms after his first-half treble set Coventry on their way to a 5-0 Championship victory over basement boys Rotherham at the CBS Arena.

Simms claimed his second hat-trick in eight days after securing the match ball during the Sky Blues’ 5-0 win over Maidstone in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Joel Latibeaudiere and Fabio Tavares were also on the scoresheet as Coventry returned to winning ways after defeats in their last two league outings.

Robins, who celebrates his seventh anniversary in charge of Coventry on Wednesday, said: “It was a good start. Within the first five minutes, the goalkeeper has dropped one onto Ellis’ head and it puts us 1-0 up and settles any nerves there may have been.

“We blew them away within the first 37 minutes or so, Ellis has scored a hat-trick, Joel’s (Latibeaudiere) got a header from a corner…Ellis’ is left foot, right foot, header, it’s the perfect hat-trick.

“He’s not scored a hat-trick and now he’s got two in a week, gets his second match ball and that’s brilliant for him, brilliant for us, brilliant for his confidence.

“When he realises his strength he’ll be absolutely awesome. You can see he can finish with his right and left foot and that’s when he’s not thinking about things. He’s got incredible pace and incredible strength.

“Fabio’s finish was outstanding, I think Joel was above the crossbar when he headed it. It was just a really good performance and it was much needed.

“We needed the three points and to get it in the style and the manner we got it was really pleasing. The clean sheet was a brilliant clean sheet.”

Rotherham boss Leam Richardson admitted the Millers’ first-half display was the worst 45 minutes of his managerial career as his side slumped to their eighth defeat in a row, leaving them 19 points from safety.

Richardson admitted: “There’s some pretty embarrassed footballers in that dressing room right now. I will always defend footballers but that’s probably the worst 45 minutes that I’ve been involved in.

“You can accept mistakes. Vik’s (Johansson) had an outstanding season but you can’t stand games like this in the Championship. You can’t be soft, conceding three or four goals in the middle of our goal.

“We’re very aware of the situation we’re in. I’ve been here a number of weeks and it became clear very quickly the amount of challenges we’ve got at the football club, where we’ve got to move it forward.

“I’ll always back myself to move football clubs forward because I’ve done it in the past and I’ve got a really strong record.

“At this level, you’ve got to be really careful you don’t open yourself up to nights like this because the level is too big and if we’re not 100 per cent we will find ourselves on the back of things like this.

“It’s the first time that I’ve experienced it in my time at the club. I can make excuses for everybody but I’ll take the full blame for it.

“I’ll take it on my shoulders because I’m the man at the front of it and I’m the man who puts them out there.”