Millwall and Preston North End square off at The Den on Tuesday evening with just one point separating the two clubs in the Championship standings.
While the 13th-placed visitors currently hold a one-point advantage, the Lions possess a game in hand and have the potential to move into the top half of the table.
Match preview
© Reuters
In comparison to the quality that they produced against West Bromwich Albion three days earlier, Preston fell well short during the first half versus Bristol City at the weekend.
North End ultimately fought back for the second time to salvage a point courtesy of a last-gasp equaliser, but Ryan Lowe will regard the 2-2 draw as points dropped in their bid to challenge for the playoffs.
Preston have now accumulated 12 points from his seven league games, a strong return all things considered, but only claiming a share of the spoils at Deepdale has left them eight points adrift of the top six.
With 18 games remaining, there is still time to move into close proximity of the teams above them, although they need to take advantage of fixtures such as the one on Tuesday.
As a result of his double against Bristol City, forward Emil Riis Jakobsen has now scored 12 in the Championship this campaign, four of them coming in as many appearances.
© Reuters
Millwall's season has petered out over recent games, the East Londoners suffering three defeats in a row to Bristol City, Nottingham Forest and Blackpool.
While Gary Rowett was not necessarily under increasing pressure, he was aware that he could ill-afford another setback against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
His side responded in superb fashion, recording a deserved 2-0 success over the Baggies to stay within nine points of the playoffs with at least one game in hand on many of their rivals.
Goals remain a major problem for this team, but Benik Afobe has now netted three times during his last five appearances in all competitions.
- L
- W
- L
- L
- L
- W
- W
- L
- L
- L
- L
- W
- W
- D
- D
- L
- W
- D
- L
- D
- D
- L
- W
- D
Team News
© Reuters
Barring any further injury issues, Rowett is expected to stick with the Millwall XI which started the game against West Brom.
George Evans is an alternative in midfield if Rowett decides to introduce any fresh legs given the three-day turnaround.
As for Preston, Lowe is likely to make a couple of alterations to his Preston team after being left unhappy with the first-half showing against Bristol City.
Joshua Earl and Alistair McCann are both options at left wing-back and midfield respectively, while Ched Evans may take the spot of Cameron Archer in attack.
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Bialkowski; Hutchinson, Cooper, Wallace; McNamara, Kieftenbeld, Mitchell, Malone; Burke, Bennett; Afobe
Preston North End possible starting lineup:
Iversen; Van den Berg, Bauer, Hughes; Potts, Ledson, Whiteman, Earl; Browne; Riis Jakobsen, Evans
We say: Millwall 1-1 Preston North End
With neither team under threat from relegation, they have the freedom to push for all three points on Tuesday evening. Nevertheless, they are evenly-matched, and a low-scoring draw appears to be the most likely outcome given the increasing confidence in both ranks.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Millwall win with a probability of 46.01%. A draw had a probability of 28.1% and a win for Preston North End had a probability of 25.93%.
The most likely scoreline for a Millwall win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.08%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.31%) and 2-1 (8.54%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.91%), while for a Preston North End win it was 0-1 (9.77%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 10.6% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a draw in this match.
