Millwall boss asked about points gap to Championship play-off positions

Gary Rowett is confident that Millwall can close the gap on the Championship play-offs places.

The Lions are six points behind Coventry City, who occupy the final play-off position, going into Saturday’s match against Birmingham City.

Only five clubs have lost fewer matches on their home turf than the Lions (two) – all of them at the top end of the table.

“This time last season we were 16th and we still got ourselves in with a chance with about seven or eight games to go,” Rowett told the South London Press. “Historically we’ve been a team whose form has been better over the second half of the season. So I’m not overly concerned. We were one point off three games ago and then because we have drawn two and lost one then, of course, you just lose a little bit of ground.

“But it is more about concentrating on our consistency and concentrating on how we can add some more wins and certainly not create more losses, like we did at Hull. We have to make sure we’re hard to beat and hard to play against. The rest, for me, takes care of itself.

“You look at the average to reach the play-offs in the last 10 years and we’d be about three or four points off that, rather than six in the current moment. It’s about us maintaining the levels and raising them. If we raise them then we’ll give ourselves a chance over the 46 games. If we can’t then we’ll probably be in the same position as the last two or three seasons.

“The challenge for us has always been that little extra 10 per cent.”