MILLWALL are out to avoid their worst start to a league campaign since 2013-14 when they host Blackpool at The Den this Saturday.
If the Lions fail to beat the Seasiders then they will have the fewest points at this stage of a campaign since Steve Lomas’ brief and unhappy time in charge eight years ago.
You wouldn’t have put money on this one being a game after which Millwall could drop into the bottom three. But then again West Ham are top of the Premier League, which shows how false tables are at this point of the season, so there is no need to panic.
And Millwall have enough players with enough experience to show they won’t do that. They fell one behind to Cambridge on Tuesday night but extricated themselves from that awkward position.
Manager Gary Rowett doesn’t get ruffled too easily, and he’ll be able to put things in perspective. The Lions have found it tough against the four teams they’ve faced so far in recent seasons. Perhaps they are better off learning tough lessons early on, though Rowett wouldn’t have seen set-piece weakness as one of those things he and he staff will have to study carefully to see what’s going wrong.
“We’ve had four hard games to start the season but if you want to be a good team you have to navigate these fixtures,” Rowett said.
“I saw Marco Silva saying his side put in a perfect performance against Millwall. You have to give them credit for that.
“The other three games, in my opinion, there was nothing in them. We played really well against QPR but we allowed them a chance to get back into the game, which was disappointing.
“We should have beaten Blackburn but conceded a poor goal. And then against Cardiff I don’t think there is much in the game, we have a couple of chances before they score and then they scored from a set-piece, we hit the bar when we should make it 2-2, then they go down the other end and score again.
“Of course there are areas we can improve on but there have also been areas we’ve been quite pleased with.
“It’s not the start we wanted but we’ve had periods of the season when we’ve picked up two points from four games but it hasn’t affected our points tally overall.
“That’s the important factor, it’s a long season but of course we want to get that first win quite quickly.”
Rowett is without the injured Shaun Hutchinson, Danny McNamara and Mason Bennett against Blackpool.
Possible Millwall starting XI: 5-3-2: Bialkowski; Mitchell, Ballard, M Wallace, Cooper, Malone; Thompson, Kieftenbeld, Saville; J Wallace, Smith.
Match odds: Millwall 4/7 Draw 12/5 Blackpool 2/1
Last meeting: League One (March 5, 2016): Millwall 3-0 Blackpool (Gregory 8’, J Wallace 24′, Morison 84′ pen).
Image: Millwall FC