Stoke eye revenge against rowett’s lions

Millwall boss returns to face his former club at the Bet365 Stadium

By Alex Jones alexj@southwarknews.co.uk

MillwA ll T r Avel to Staffordshire this weekend for a rematch against their first opponents of the Championship season.

The Lions will face Stoke City, who they beat 2-0 at The Den on the opening day of the campaign thanks to a brace from defender Charlie Cresswell. The Potters were ruthlessly punished from set pieces, with manager Michael O’Neill relieved of his duties less than a month later.

Despite their dismal start, Stoke managed to convince Alex Neil to leave his post at Sunderland in order to become their new manager, but their fortunes haven’t improved since he was brought in.

certainly improved in that regard. These are the kinds of games that a side aiming to secure a place in the play-offs has to win, with tough games against Luton Town and Norwich City on the horizon in the next few days. That being said, Gary Rowett will likely rotate his team to keep everyone fit and firing throughout a hectic period of fixtures, knowing that a positive run could catapult them into a positive position heading into the run-in.

The manager will be returning to the Bet365 Stadium to take on his former team once again, having managed Stoke for less than eight months in their first season back in the Championship in 2018-19.

MATCH DeTAIlS

to come, it feels like Millwall did as well as anyone could have hoped against the two strongest sides in the division. A win away at Stoke City on Saturday afternoon would certainly take them one step closer to achieving their goal, and Tuesday’s draw proved why nobody would want to face Millwall in the play-offs if they were to make it.

The Potters had won just three games in 2023 before travelling to Swansea City in midweek, dropping them down to seventeenth in the table. A relegation battle certainly isn’t out of the question either, with some of the teams below them finally starting to pick up some form.

Every time Stoke manage to secure an encouraging result, they struggle to maintain the same performance level and end up disappointing in the next game, having failed to register consecutive Championship wins since mid-October.

Their 1-0 defeat to Blackpool summed up their season so far, with Neil’s men registering 69% possession and 25 shots, yet they were beaten 1-0 by an early longrange strike from Ian Poveda.

The Potters also have one of the worst home records in the division, having won just five of their sixteen league games in Stoke-on-Trent. It sets Millwall up nicely to pick up all three points on Saturday afternoon, but they rarely make it as easy as it looks on paper.

Millwall’s best performances seem to come against the top teams, especially at home, such as their recent 3-2 win against Sheffield United. They often find it harder on the road against teams that sit in and frustrate them, although they have

Possible Millwall starting XI: 4-2-3-1: long; Mcnamara, Cresswell, Cooper, Wallace; shackleton, saville; Burke, Flemming, Voglsammer; Bradshaw

Match odds: stoke 8/5 Draw 19/10 Millwall 19/10

Last meeting: Championship (July 30, 2022): Millwall 2-0 stoke (Cresswell 12’, 65’)

Sky bet chamPionShiP table

P w d l gd Pts

1 Burnley 33 21 10 2 36 73

2 Sheffield United 32 18 7 7 24 61

3 Middlesbrough 33 17 6 10 18 57

4 Blackburn Rovers 33 16 4 13 -2 52

5 Millwall 32 14 8 10 7 50

6 Luton Town 32 13 11 8 7 50

7 Watford 33 13 11 9 4 50

8 Sunderland 33 13 10 10 12 49

9 Norwich City 33 14 7 12 9 49

10 WBA 32 12 9 11 6 45

11 Coventry City 32 12 9 11 2 45

12Swansea City 33 11 9 13 -4 42

13 Hull City 33 11 9 13 -9 42

14 Preston NE 32 11 9 12 -9 42

15 Bristol City 32 10 11 11 1 41

16 Reading 32 12 5 15 -12 41

17 Stoke City 33 11 7 15 -1 40

18 QPR 33 10 9 14 -12 39

19 Birmingham City 33 10 8 15 -7 38

20 Rotherham United 33 8 12 13 -9 36

21 Cardiff City 33 9 8 16 -11 35

22 Huddersfield Town 32 8 7 17 -13 31

23 Blackpool 33 7 10 16 -16 31

24 Wigan Athletic 32 7 10 15 -21 31