Millwall boss Neil Harris: QPR and Birmingham will both still have Championship drop nerves

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Neil Harris reckons that Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City will both still have some drop fears – with the former heading to Millwall on Wednesday night.

The Lions were 2-0 winners over West Bromwich Albion on Saturday to end their wait for a home Championship win in 2019.

And next up is a derby against Rangers, who parted company with Steve McClaren last week.

Caretaker boss John Eustace endured a tough baptism as the west Londoners were thumped 4-0 by league leaders Norwich City.

Millwall are a point above the bottom three – but can cut the gap on QPR to the same margin and have a match in hand if they come out on top in SE16.

“Birmingham and QPR will still be looking over their shoulders with 44 points,” said Harris. “They’ll be thinking they need to win at least another game.

“I think Blackburn would be quite comfortable [on 47 points].

“Birmingham’s result at Leeds will give them huge confidence and they have amassed a lot more than the 44 points they have got [deducted nine for breaching acceptable EFL financial losses]. They know they are capable of getting results but have still got to get over the line.

“It’s a dogfight. We’re scrapping and scrapping and in the last four or five weeks we have performed well. There are teams around us but we can’t control that.

“Until we play Wigan on the last day we have to worry our ourselves and churn out performance after performance.

“The focus now becomes Wednesday.”

Millwall impressed against West Brom on Saturday, narrowly lost at Leeds and before that pulled off a fine away win at Birmingham.

QPR are the club sliding into trouble.

“They’ve not been on a good run but I’m still surprised by Steve’s sacking,” said Harris. “At this stage of the season it is a tough one for John Eustace, away at the best team in the division.

“They have not been in very good form and we have to play on that on Wednesday. We have to impose ourselves on the game and make it all about us at The Den.

“That’s the way it should be.

“We’ll prepare diligently and know as much as we can about QPR but we don’t know if John will still be in charge or there is a new manager or what system they’ll play.

“They have got a lot of players they can choose from. The focus becomes more what we do rather than what QPR do. 

“All that matters on Wednesday is to fight for the points. We can’t be too interested in QPR. We can’t control what QPR do or what they have done in the last couple of months.

“We need to train and play like we have for the last four games.”