Millwall v Bristol City

Millwall will host Bristol City at the New Den this Saturday with kick off from 3pm UK time (4pm CET and Malta time).

It’s an important game for Millwall who will be hoping to still get in amongst the pigeons for a play off spot against the Somerset team in need of points themselves in a top 8 Championship game.

To say this game is relevant to both sides is a massive understatement. There is nothing to separate Bristol City and Millwall both on 62 points in the league and with the same goal difference. So effectively City are only ahead in the table alphabetically but it is Millwall who are so on form at the current time unbeaten in 14 games and leaving their late run perfectly. It is possible both teams could still make the play offs however with only 6 matches of the season in the Championship that remain.

The two teams currently lie only 1 point behind a struggling Middlesbrough in 6th and 3 points behind a patchy Derby County in 5th place respectively. Sheffield United are also on the same number of points as City and the Lions so don’t write them off yet nor Preston North End just two points behind the chasing pack.

Millwall kept their unbeaten run going on Easter Monday following a 2-2 away draw in East Anglia as Ipswich Town gave them a few troubles over 90 minutes. Despite Town dominating it was Millwall who took the lead when Jake Cooper headed in Ben Marshall’s cross. However Martyn Waghorn proved to be the stumbling block for the Lions and got Ipswich level after a goalmouth scramble and he put the hosts ahead only two minutes later as he pounced on a defensive mistake. Millwall will be cursing themselves for two minutes poor football which turned the match on it’s head.

Luckily for the away side George Saville levelled with a good finish for Millwall, before the Lions laid siege to Ipswich’s goal late on but it was not to be as Ipswich hung on for a point. Millwall could look on this as two points wasted however as a win would have put them up into 6^th ahead of Middlesbrough.

The north east team are struggling at present and could only manage a 1-1 draw away at bottom club Burton Albion. They will need more than results like that to keep them in a championship play off spot.

Derby managed a decent 1-0 win over Preston at Deepdale also on Easter Monday to dent Preston’s play off hopes but bolster their own. Inconsistency is the key to Derby at the moment though.

Bristol City and Millwall drew out a rather boring 0-0 draw in the corresponding fixture back on August 19^th last year along the M4. This time it is City who are struggling in the league with just one win in the last 5 with Millwall as mentioned unbeaten in 14 games now. On current form i’m not expecting a hat full of goals in this game either which should almost see a chess match on grass with both teams having too much to lose to give anything silly away in the opening half.

Whichever team comes out of the blocks fastest could take control of the match so Bristol City will have to be wary of Millwall’s knack of scoring ridiculously early goals in the first minute when the match gets underway. This has happened 4 times this season already.

With the Lions at home and in near sparkling form expect them to be the favourites but they need to careful of a decent Bristol City side looking to upset the applecart.

Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson in Thursdays pre match conference is realistic about Saturday and describes Millwall’s form as “brilliant”, complimenting the way Neil Harris has got his side playing. Johnson insists outcome of the game “isn’t fatal” for either side, adding: “Hopefully we can take it to the wire.”

If you fancy a punt on Millwall for the game then you can chance your arm at this link.

Millwall to beat Bristol City is priced 2.15 with a draw at 3.25. The price on a Bristol City win is 3.40.

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