MILLWALL will seek to overcome their underdog status and take three points away from Hull City on Saturday.
The Tigers, chasing the play-offs and continuing to impress under manager Liam Rosenior, have experienced up-and-down form recently but carry serious threat that can harm the Lions.
An already intriguing game of Championship football briefly took on greater interest earlier this week when reports emerged that Hull were among the sides looking to make a late attempt to sign Romain Esse.
To the relief of Lions fans, the 18-year-old remains a Millwall player and will be hoping to build on the 45 minutes of football he managed against Preston North End last week.
Joe Edwards will want his side to show more goal threat than they did in that 1-1 draw with Ryan Lowe’s side last week.
There was parts to like about that performance but, given how the Lions dominated the second half in terms of possession, it was slightly surprising to witness how unconvincing they were in their assault on the Preston goal.
While they were slugging it out at The Den, Hull City’s players might have been sat on a beach somewhere. The Tigers enjoyed a rare weekend off with their scheduled opponents busy with FA Cup action.
With Hull having beaten Sunderland 1-0 on the Friday night the weekend before (January 19), Millwall have now played twice since Hull last stepped on a football pitch and the Lions could find their opponents to be slightly sharper come kick-off.
The Tigers won that game away at the Black Cats thanks to a deflected strike from Fabio Carvalho, his first goal for the club after he signed on loan from Liverpool in January. He is one of the many threats Millwall will have to look out for, along with the recent loan signing of full-back Ryan Giles from Luton Town.
They have also landed Croatian goalkeeper Ivor Pandur, who like Zian Flemming left Dutch side Fortuna Sittard for a taste of life in the Championship.
Carvalho and Giles will not be the only Premier League loanees who will be hoping to make headlines on Saturday. Japhet Tanganga from Tottenham Hotspur and Michael Obafemi from Burnley will both be aiming to get more minutes for Millwall following their recent loan moves.
Meanwhile, suspension will rule out the newest signing Adam Mayor from making his debut after he collected 10 yellow cards while playing for League Two Morecambe. He has scored three goals and had five assists in his 23 league games this season.
Also absent will be Ryan Longman, who cannot play against his parent club in any case but also has a dislocated shoulder. Tom Bradshaw has made a quick recovery from his hamstring issue and could be involved at the MKM Stadium while Shaun Hutchinson is also back in training. He’s been absent since striking the late winner at Bristol City on New Year’s Day, the last time the Lions were victorious in a game.
The last time these two clubs met was in October in a match that proved to be Gary Rowett’s last in charge of Millwall.
Duncan Watmore gave the Lions an early lead before two quickfire Hull goals in the first half caused the atmosphere inside The Den to change. Joe Bryan rescued the day with a brilliant second half equaliser, his first goal for the club.
Millwall last won away at Hull in July 2020 when Ryan Leonard’s jaw-dropping strike after just two minutes was enough to secure the win (highlights below, goal 1.15 in).
– Stat Station –
- Jake Cooper, who turns 29 years old on the day of the Hull game, is approaching an entire calendar year without a Millwall goal. Since arriving at the Lions initially on loan from Reading in January 2017, the defender has never gone a whole year without scoring. His last goal was on February 4 2023 in a 1-1 draw with Sunderland.
- But Cooper can take encouragement from the fact that he has scored twice against Hull, in 2016 (for Reading) and 2017 (for Millwall), with the latter at the MKM Stadium in a 2-1 win.
- Zian Flemming has four goal involvements (two goals and two assists) in his last four games. He also has six goals in four matches against Preston following last week’s early strike.
- That goal from the Dutchman after four minutes is another early goal Millwall have notched up at The Den recently. Flemming (4′), Joe Bryan (10′) and Tom Bradshaw (18′) have all scored the first goal in Millwall’s last three home league games against Preston, Middlesbrough and Norwich City respectively. The Lions have generally been good starters this season home or away with Bradshaw scoring after 10 minutes away at Leicester, Wes Harding scoring after four minutes against Blackburn, Duncan Watmore scoring after eight minutes against Hull and Kevin Nisbet scoring after six minutes against Birmingham City. In total, Millwall have scored 8 goals in the opening 20 minutes of league games this season while conceding 5 in the same time frame.
- Millwall have scored the first goal in all of their last 6 home league games but have only converted 2 into wins. Of those 6 games, 3 have ended 1-1.
- The Lions have lost 4 of their last 6 away games.
- George Honeyman has been booked in 4 of his last 6 league games. He faces former club Hull where he made 127 appearances.
- Hull, who are two points off the play-off positions, have lost back-to-back games in the league on three separate occasions since the beginning of December.
Injury List (5)
Shaun Hutchinson – calf – last match: vs Bristol City – January 1 – Back in training; could return
Ryan Leonard – hamstring – last match: vs Leicester City – January 6 – Out for six weeks (from Jan 8)
Aidomo Emakhu – ankle – last match: vs Bristol City – January 1 – Out; could return for Coventry City game on February 11
Tom Bradshaw – hamstring – last match: vs Leicester City – January 6 – Back in training; could return
Ryan Longman – shoulder – last match: vs Preston – January 27 – Expected to be out for a few weeks but still waiting to see a specialist
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Suspension Watch – players with two or more yellows so far (10 yellow cards accumulated in the first 37 games result in a two game suspension).
Jake Cooper – 8 (booked against Middlesbrough, Swansea, Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Leicester, Stoke and Norwich)
George Saville – 6 (booked against Stoke, Watford, Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry, Sunderland and Leicester. Sent off against Norwich)
Murray Wallace – 5 (booked against Plymouth, Southampton, Coventry, Leicester and QPR)
George Honeyman – 5 (booked against Ipswich, QPR, Norwich, Middlesbrough and Preston)
Wes Harding – 4 (booked against Birmingham, Hull, Leicester and Stoke)
Brooke Norton-Cuffy – 4 (booked against Birmingham, Plymouth, Watford and Bristol City)
Ryan Leonard – 4 (booked against Plymouth, Cardiff, Norwich and Bristol City)
Ryan Longman – 4 (booked against Rotherham, Swansea, Southampton and Middlesbrough)
Zian Flemming – 4 (booked against Watford, Ipswich, QPR and Preston)
Danny McNamara – 3 (booked against West Brom, Plymouth and Hull)
Joe Bryan – 3 (booked against Middlesbrough (x2) and Hull)
Billy Mitchell – 3 (booked against Norwich, Stoke and QPR)
Shaun Hutchinson – 2 (booked against Bristol City and Cardiff)
Casper De Norre – 2 (booked against Hull and Ipswich)
Aidomo Emakhu – 2 (booked against Preston and QPR)
Duncan Watmore – 2 (booked against Sunderland and Norwich)
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