The Lions head into this week’s round of midweek matches in the midst of a recent dip in form. The South-East London side haven’t won in their last three.
On the other side of the coin though, Millwall’s defeat at Barnsley on Saturday leaves the SE16 side on a run of just one defeat in 10 league matches.
The run has seen them rise from 17th to the top half of the table, where they now sit in 12th.
Play-Off Push
Millwall currently sit nine points off the play-off places going into Tuesday’s match, though they’re currently enduring a run of fixtures against teams who are also in the rather large chasing pack for the top six, meaning picking up a good vein of form over the coming weeks and months could prove invaluable come the end of the season.
Preston travel to Bermondsey in unfavourable form, though the Lancashire side will be hoping their 3-0 win over Huddersfield on Saturday will be the boost they need to start their upturn in form and, like Millwall, chase down the top six.
Prior to Saturday, the Lilywhites had lost four of their past six games, but currently find themselves level on points with their hosts on Tuesday night.
Millwall sit above them only on goal difference with a win for either side potentially taking them into the top 10, and could also put them just six points off the play-off places.
Preston are currently managed by young Scotsman Alex Neil, who took over in July 2017 after a two-year spell at Norwich City that saw the Canaries promoted into the Premier League through the play-offs before being relegated a year later.
Team News
Lions manager Gary Rowett will be without Ryan Leonard, Murray Wallace, Kenneth Zohore, Maikel Kieftenbeld, Connor Mahoney and Jake Cooper as they all continue to recover from a long list of injuries. Jake Cooper is expected to be back soon, but the visit of Preston on Tuesday may just come too early for him.
Rowett experimented with a 3-5-2 formation on Saturday against Barnsley but is likely to return the usual 3-4-3 on Tuesday. Tom Bradshaw is expected to come back in to lead the line with Jed Wallace and Mason Bennett either side of him.
The visitors were missing Liam Lindsay, Paul Gallagher, Ryan Ledson, Sean Maguire and Bolly Bodin on Saturday, but Neil admitted that he was hopeful a number of those would be close to a return for Tuesday’s match. Declan Rudd, Patrick Bauer and Louis Moult are all still not close to recovering from longer term injuries.
It’s likely that Neil will name an unchanged side from the one that swept aside Huddersfield on Saturday.
A Good Omen
Rowett and Neil have met in the dugout seven times before in their managerial careers. The first of which coming in January 2015 when Rowett’s Birmingham City side fought out a goalless draw with Neil’s Norwich.
Rowett has also been in charge of Derby, Stoke and Millwall while coming up against the Scot and a potentially good omen for the Lions for Tuesday night, is that Rowett is unbeaten against Neil in those seven games, winning five of them. Rowett is also unbeaten when managing against Preston, winning four and drawing four.
The two sides last met back in late October in a Wednesday night Championship clash. High-flying Millwall went up to third place – just a point off the automatic promotion places after a 2-0 win at Deepdale against a Preston side in 13th.
A man of the match performance from Wallace that included a goal and an assist, inspired the Lions to two second half goals, with Zohore netting his first of the season also.
