GARY Rowett reiterated that Millwall need to be “ambitious” this season – but the Lions boss is not getting carried away after a seven-game unbeaten run has lifted them into the top half of the table.
The Lions made it consecutive 1-0 league wins when Murray Wallace scored an 89th-minute winner at Barnsley on Saturday.
Millwall have lost only twice this season – only the top two, Bournemouth and West Brom, have lost fewer.
With almost a quarter of the season gone, the Lions are 11th, three points off QPR in sixth.
Millwall have the joint-third best defence in the Championship, though their 11 goals scored is the joint-fewest in the top half.
Rowett was asked after Saturday’s win if a play-off challenge should be the “bare minimum” of expectations.
He replied: “I wouldn’t say the bare minimum, we are Millwall, we want to be as competitive as we can, we want to be proud of the team, we want to do as well as we can.
“Our aim is of course to be pushing for that top 10. If you’re pushing for that top 10 like we have in the last two seasons then you’re likely to be challenging for the top six.
“But I think with the teams in this division and the money they have spent, I think we would be a little bit arrogant to say we expect to be in the top six.
“We will have to work incredibly hard and do whatever we can to see if we can get up in those areas.
“We’ve got to be ambitious. We want to be ambitious. We are a football club that for a large part of the Championship have done quite well but then maybe dropped down and not done so well.
“We’ve always said that we want to be a team, a club that can sustain that top half of the table challenge, which as we know is a tough, tough challenge with a lot of the teams in there.
“We need all of our players available, we need a little bit of good fortune with injuries and we need to click a bit in that final third and I think if we do we will have a very good chance in and around those areas.
“Two wins in a row in the Championship, as we know, changes the whole outlook on things and it’s a great time to do it just before the international break.”
Image: Millwall FC