Millwall boss Neil Harris on facing Championship leaders Norwich City

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Millwall’s 4-3 defeat at Norwich City in November is proof that the South Londoners can hurt the Championship leaders in the reverse fixture at The Den on Saturday.

That’s the verdict of Lions chief Neil Harris, who admits the Canaries deserve plenty of plaudits for the way they have stormed up the table with a superb run of form.

Millwall fought back to lead 3-2 going into stoppage time at Carrow Road but Jordan Rhodes and Teemu Pukki both scored – the latter in the seventh minute added on – to seal victory for Daniel Farke’s side.

“Norwich first and foremost are top of the league because they have been the most consistent in the division,” said Harris. “It’s a tough game. But when you’re playing the league leaders it is also exciting.

“It’s a good challenge and will be a great atmosphere. They are bringing 3,000 fans and the stadium will be rocking – we’ve always fed well off that. As a club we look forward to that.

“Norwich are a very good, possession-based team. We have got to be better than we were last time at home against Preston, definitely. When we played at Carrow Road we scored three and could’ve had more. So we know we can cause problems for Norwich as well.

“As a unit we need to be really reliable and show huge discipline within this game. The players need to be at their best.

“We’ve been in every game barring Preston. We hung in there and maybe could’ve got back into that one in the second half but it wasn’t to be.

“We have to make sure that we defend properly because games at this level are so tight – you can’t afford to give anything away. We were lacklustre for 25 minutes against Preston and got punished. At Hull we gave a poor second goal away and got punished. That’s the danger of this level, the level is so good.

“The message to the players is that we have to be at our best for every minute of every game.”