MILLWALL manager Neil Harris has called on Lions fans to bring “a cup-final mentality” to The Memorial Stadium on the final day of the League One season on Sunday.
Millwall have sold their full allocation of just under 1,300 tickets for the fixture which is a sell-out at the 12,300-capacity stadium for the first time this season.
Millwall will secure their place in the play-offs with a victory, but their season will be over if they fail to get three points and Southend or Rochdale win their final games.
“It’s a one-off cup final,” Harris said. “You’ve got to come with a cup-final mentality. We will as players and they have to as fans.
“We need the fans to get behind us. There’s no extra-time in this, we’re in or we’re out at 90 minutes.
“We could have sold the away end out three or four times over, which would have been great, but not to be.
“We have to make sure that in a sell-out crowd in a hostile atmosphere at Bristol our fans are heard, that the players are on the front foot on the pitch and that we make it a special Millwall day.”
Harris knows if Millwall score early they will keep their fate in their own hands no matter what happens elsewhere.
But if Southend or Rochdale take the lead in their games against Bury and Bradford, respectively, before Millwall score, it will drop the Lions out of the play-off standings and increase the pressure on the players.
“First goals at all levels are key, Premier League down,” Harris said. “We have to get back to having that clean-sheet mentality, being hard to break down, standing strong at difficult times and then us being the team that nicks a goal out of nothing.
“But at this stage of the season you have to be mentally strong, that if you concede a goal you make sure you don’t go on to concede a second or third one.
“We are capable of scoring goals at any stage of a game. We have to be diligent defensively and be as secure as we can knowing over the 90 minutes we will create chances.”
Image: Millwall FC