Gary Rowett on Millwall’s four-point cushion in Championship play-offs

Gary Rowett is refusing to get carried away by his Millwall side having a four-point cushion in the Championship play-off zone.

The Lions are bidding to make it three league wins on the spin when they take on Huddersfield Town at The Den tomorrow.

Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City – the three clubs immediately below them – all drew their midweek fixtures.

Millwall are guaranteed to be at least sixth heading into the international break with only eight matches left to go.

“I’d rather have a four-point gap than not have a four-point gap – but it is only relevant when there is one game left,” Rowett told the South London Press.

“There are 27 points to play for and within two games a four-point gap can flip around against you.

“Just as I don’t think anyone four points ahead of us is guaranteed to finish above us this season, I don’t think being four points above Norwich and teams like West Brom, in their position, gives us any guarantee we will finish above them.

“Our focus is on Huddersfield. If we’ve got a four-point gap going into the international break – great. But if we haven’t, we haven’t.”

Former Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock, 74, came out of retirement last month to take the Huddersfield job on a short-term basis.

“We are coming up against a manager who I think has won the most promotions in English football,” said Rowett. “So you’d be pretty stupid to focus on anything other than how can we try and win the game.

“My mindset has always been the same, because I have been in this position several times in my managerial career. The second you start looking at the table and patting yourself on the back as a team, is the second that results start going against you.

“You have to stay focused on what has got us in these positions. It’s that situation where the bullets are flying – metaphorically speaking – around your head and you’ve got to stay calm.

“The speculation about points, the position in the league and the gap is for the fans to talk about down the pub or chatting to their mates about it at work. For us, this is our job. We have to make sure we come in and do our job today equally as well as we did it on Tuesday night or Saturday.

“As a manager you are going to get asked these questions, but you can’t sit there after a game and say ‘the results were great for us’ – it almost feels like you are giving people motivation to say ‘okay, let’s see what our results are like next game’.

“I prefer not to talk about other teams. I don’t think it is particularly relevant to us.”