LEEDS United’s late winner at Swansea on Sunday meant none of the five play-off rivals above Millwall in the Championship table won over the weekend.
Pablo Hernandez’s 89th-minute strike at the Liberty Stadium ensured that the Lions went into the final three games two points off sixth, after the gap was five points before their match against Hull.
The weekend began on a positive note for Millwall when Cardiff, in sixth, lost 2-0 at Fulham to remain on 64 points.
Derby then lost 3-1 at home to Brentford, and there were 1-1 draws for Blackburn who hosted West Brom and Preston at home to Nottingham Forest.
Millwall’s 1-0 win at Hull moved them up two places to ninth, level on 62 points with Preston a place above them, and a point off the Swans in seventh.
Despite Forest, who are fifth, dropping points at Preston, there is realistically one more play-off place up for grabs. Sabri Lamouchi’s side are five points ahead of Neil Harris’ Cardiff with three games left.
Seven teams are battling to finish sixth, with just four points covering Cardiff to Blackburn in 12th.
Four of those seven teams play each other this week, with the Lions hosting Blackburn on Tuesday evening.
Millwall’s recent record against Rovers is not encouraging. They haven’t scored a goal against them in their last four games, losing 2-0 three times and drawing the other. The Lions haven’t won any of the last eight Championship meetings between the sides, since a 2-0 victory at Ewood Park in November 2012.
Millwall also haven’t won any of their last seven games in the league at The Den going back to January.
On top of that, boss Gary Rowett won’t have a full squad to choose from. Aiden O’Brien and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson are out. Wing-back Mahlon Romeo didn’t train on Monday after an ongoing calf concern caused him to miss the game at Hull.
Rovers boss Tony Mowbray could make changes after their draw against the Baggies.
“Generally, I look at the opposition and see where I feel they can be hurt or where we can gain an advantage, and we try to sell that to the players,” Mowbray said.
“Of course the difficulty of that at the moment is the lack of times between games to lay out a game plan to take onto the training ground so that they can try and make it happen on a match-day.
“We’ll talk about the opposition, we’ll have a look at what they do and then tomorrow we will see how everybody is after the long journey down to London and then we’ll pick the team.”
Possible Milwall starting XI: 5-2-3: Bialkowski; Mitchell, Hutchinson, Pearce, Cooper, M Wallace; Woods, Leonard; J Wallace, Smith, Bennett.
Match odds: Millwall 11/10 Draw 9/4 Blackburn 12/5
Last meeting: Championship (September 14, 2019: Blackburn 2-0 Millwall (Williams 18, Dack 74).
Midweek fixtures involving play-off contenders
Tuesday, July 14:
Cardiff City 19:45 Derby County
MILLWALL 19:45 Blackburn Rovers
Wednesday, July 15:
Brentford 17:00 Preston North End
Bristol City 17:00 Stoke City
Nottingham Forest 18:00 Swansea City
Image: Millwall FC