Millwall’s best start to a Championship season in a decade….Gary Rowett’s verdict on those first 20 matches

Gary Rowett is making no lofty predictions despite Millwall heading into the Championship break in the top six and with their best points return after 20 games at that level in the last decade.

Zian Flemming’s hat-trick and a Charlie Cresswell header earned the Lions a 4-2 victory at Preston North End last Saturday and lifted them into the play-off places.

Millwall have traditionally tended to make slower starts to seasons and then cranked up their form down the home straight. This time they could move fourth if they win their match in hand, leapfrogging Norwich City and Watford.

Millwall are on 31 points after 20 matches – the last time they had more was 33 in the 2012-13 campaign which eventually saw them finish 20th.

Kenny Jackett’s team were flying until December, when West Brom recalled a prolific Chris Wood and sold him to Leicester City. They went on to lose 15 and draw five of their final 26 matches.

The South London club are four points ahead of their previous best hauls since then, in 2021 and 2019.

“I speak regularly to John [Berylson, Millwall’s owner] and he always says it would be good to have a really good first half of the campaign,” Lions boss Rowett told the South London Press. “If nothing else, we’ve ticked a box in the first 20 games. That’s all we can judge it on, isn’t it? We’re not all sat here saying we are going to get promoted or finish in the top six, just because of where we are.

“But it does show the capability of the team over a longer period – it’s not just a five-game block or a 10-game block. It shows we can match a lot of teams in this division. It also shows we’ve got quality.”

Millwall took their play-off hopes to the final day in the 2021-22 season although the odds were firmly stacked against them as they were reliant on multiple other factors out of their control going in their favour as well as needing to beat promoted Bournemouth away.

“We’re trying to be incrementally better every year,” said Rowett.

“We’ve been in or around the top 10 for three seasons now. We lost some key players in the summer. We spoke about trying to be better in a different way and that maybe took a little bit of time.

“I’m not one to get carried away. We are happy where we are, we’ve worked hard for 20 games. We’ve got to make sure we maintain and continue.

“I actually think the team will get better. Whether that is true, we’ll only know in time. There are players there who have still got more to come in their game. As long as we can avoid serious injuries and get the players back that we have clearly missed then we’re in a really good position.

“I’m pleased with our points tally and that we’re matching the ambition that people expected. Even when we were in a poor run – we had a little bit of stick and a little bit of negativity – I was always confident we’d come out of it. We have got the players to do that. It’s just about being calm and working hard as a team.

“The players have been incredible – really, really good to work with. They have stepped up when we’ve needed them to. I’m looking forward to seeing where this team can go over the next 20 games.”

Rowett is usually not the most animated after a match but showed his delight at the full-time whistle at Deepdale.

“It’s a funny one really, people say you perhaps don’t show emotion but I see managers up and down the country win a game and they are banging the badge on their shirt – then four weeks later they leave for another club,” said Rowett, who is the second-longest serving boss in the Championship.

“It is all a bit showy for me. I’ve always tried to show my emotion within the game, rather than after a game. Maybe some fans would prefer if you do that but all I can say to that is that I’m an honest person, I work hard and I’m not particularly strategic with the fans to think ‘I’ll do that to make them like me more’.

“It’s just me and how I am. It was a big game and at the end it felt like a big win. It was a nice way to finish.”

Flemming is the second Millwall player to score a hat-trick this season with Tom Bradshaw also achieving the feat in the 3-0 home win over Watford in October.

“It shows we are capable of scoring goals,” said Rowett. “That’s something we’ve never found easy.

“It doesn’t come easy in the Championship, but in terms of goals scored we’re in a reasonable position. It’s very unusual for us to score that many in an away game but we have to try and do that more often.

“It was ironic we scored the goals going back to a back five [in the second half]. Who’d have thought that? It’s another example of why you can’t be too wedded to any one system, you have to try and pick the right system for the right moment in the game.

“Certainly changing to a four [in defence] has given us some good results and it’s something we want to try and explore further.”