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Millwall have everything to play for on the final day, but they have an almost impossible task ahead as they need to defeat a relentless Burnley team to secure their play-off place.
After an uninspiring start to the season, Millwall have slowly but surely become a real contender in the race for the Championship play-offs.
With the final day of the season coming up this weekend, Millwall are only just outside the top six on goal difference behind Coventry City.
They’ll need results elsewhere to go their way on Saturday afternoon, but first and foremost, Millwall have to look after themselves and get a win against an already-promoted Burnley side.
Millwall are the last team to beat Burnley before incredible unbeaten run
Scott Parker and Alex Neil will go head-to-head with massive success for both teams very much within touching distance depending on how the upcoming fixture plays out.
Both managers have endured a fiery clash in the past, when they were at Fulham and Preston North End, but this time Neil will probably spend more time studying his predecessor, Neil Harris, than he will be looking at his own results against Parker.
Burnley are currently on an insane unbeaten run stretching back to November. The last team to beat them? That’s right, Millwall.
The Lions won that game 1-0 at The Den on November 3rd thanks to a Jake Cooper header, and only one other team (Sunderland) have been able to beat Burnley this season, which makes Harris’ achievement all the more impressive.
At the time, Harris said: “It was a really, really strong Millwall performance playing at The Den. I thought Burnley ran out of ideas quite quickly against us and I thought our shape and discipline was outstanding.
“We played on the front foot, we were aggressive when we could be and we grew into the game.
“I thought Burnley were better for the first 20 minutes and posed a couple of questions, but then we just got better and better. I couldn’t see them scoring a goal against us and I thought we were the better team.”
Harris even had statistics to back up his bold claim, adding: “We knew the threat Burnley would pose us in one-vs-one areas so we allowed them to have the ball and our full-backs did extremely well.
“I thought if anyone was going to get the game’s second goal it was going to be us on the counter-attack. Just looking at the stats and the xG, Burnley’s was just above 0.1 and ours was nearly at one, so we deserved to win the game.”
Admittedly, Burnley have become far more proficient in front of goal since then, but Alex Neil can take heart in the fact that his group of players have triumphed against this unrelenting Burnley team once this season, and know how to do it again.
It’ll be a miracle to do the double over Burnley, but stranger things have happened!
- READ MORE: Scott Parker and Burnley have just matched astonishing 71-year record after thumping QPR 5-0
How Millwall went from midtable obscurity to genuine play-off contenders
When Neil Harris left Millwall in December, the club were languishing around midtable, and looked unlikely to be a factor in either the play-off battle or the Championship relegation fight.
They’re a club that often occupy those midtable spots each season, but something has clearly clicked under Alex Neil’s stewardship.
In particular, a run of six wins from the last eight have carried the Lions to the brink of the play-off places. Defeats to Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers have hurt Millwall, but beating Sheffield United is a brilliant omen for if they can sneak into the top six.
Millwall are grinding out wins by tight margins, and while they’re not exactly a free-scoring team, they are solid at the back, and teams hate coming up against the Lions now.
They just need one more win to turn this good season into a great and potentially perfect one, and what a story that would be for Alex Neil and his team.