MILLWALL are looking to turn their form around and flip the record book on its head as they travel to Norwich City for their first televised game of the season.
Neutral fans not watching the Lionesses’ World Cup Final will get to have their first serious look at Millwall when the game kicks off on Sky at 12pm, but it is not yet clear what side they will see.
It could be the diligent, well-drilled team who earned a hard-fought win at Middlesborough and looked fully capable of stringing together another play-off push.
Or it could be the limp, lacklustre outfit who lost a dreadful game against Bristol City last weekend and barely looked like scoring.
Whichever team turns up, they will be facing not just Norwich but history as well.
Millwall are winless in almost 55 years at Carrow Road since a 3-0 victory in November 1968.
That’s a total of nineteen trips in the league and 23 in all competitions.
The Lions have come close on a few occasions – the 4-3 defeat in 2018 when Jordan Rhodes and Teemu Pukki both scored in stoppage time comes to mind – but they have yet to break their Norfolk hoodoo.
They will be hoping they have their best players available for the game after reports this week suggested Casper De Norre and Romain Esse had both picked up knocks.
Rowett was coy over whether either would make it in his pre-match press conference.
He said: “The squad is still being assessed. Most players didn’t train earlier and so we’ll assess that as we go on and we’ll see who makes the squad in terms of recovering from little knocks.”
Millwall may well fancy their chances on Sunday more than usual, with this being their first away game since the brilliant win at Middlesbrough.
Norwich have been impressive but imperfect so far this season, needing a late goal to beat Hull City on the opening day of the season before being involved in an epic 4-4 draw away at Southampton that raised questions about both defences.
Before the victory against Hull, the Canaries had gone five games in a row without scoring at home in the back end of last season.
The club are also now without talisman Pukki after he left for Minnesota United in the US during the summer.
And more recently they have had to contend with a delayed Carabao Cup clash in midweek, which saw David Wagner having to bring the big guns off the bench to see off QPR.
All of those reasons suggest Wagner’s side may be a slightly more vulnerable outfit than what Millwall have faced previously, but their threats going forward are numerous.
Academy graduate Jonathan Rowe has been a revelation so far this season, scoring three goals in three games including that last gasp winner at Loftus Road to take Norwich into the second round of the EFL Cup.
There are also goals in the strike force of Josh Sargent, Ashley Barnes and potentially Adam Idah, while the likes of Gabriel Sara and Onel Hernandez are silky midfield operators.
Behind them there could be the intriguing subplot of George Long, the former Millwall keeper who left for Carrow Road this week, and whether his manager opts for the unlikely choice of starting him instead of Angus Gunn.
Like Norwich, Millwall also have clear talent in their squad but they didn’t apply themselves against Bristol City and lacked “energy and spark” according to Rowett.
Intensity, goal threat and movement were also notable attributes missing at The Den last Saturday before Matty James punished the London club with a late winner.
Rowett was keen to stress in his post-game press conference that two bad outings against Reading in the cup and Bristol City did not constitute a crisis.
But the manner of the losses has left some fans with the feeling that a sharper and more proactive performance is needed on Sunday.