Rotherham United vs Millwall preview: How to watch, kick-off time, predicted lineups and ones to watch

Rotherham United are tipped for relegation back to League One this season, so they will be hoping that any early momentum that can be built could help them survive in the long run to try and shake off the ‘yo-yo’ club connotation that is hanging over them.

Millwall will be looking to continue their unbeaten start to the 2020/21 campaign, after progressing through two rounds of the Carabao Cup, as well as an opening day draw with Stoke City.

The Lions will be hoping to mount another play-off push under Gary Rowett after narrowly missing out by two points last season as they ended the season strongly, with five wins from their final six games.

Team news

Curtis Tilt and Trevor Clarke are still out with injury, and Millers boss Paul Warne disclosed that centre-half Clark Robertson will also miss the game against Millwall, with either Richard Wood or Angus MacDonald set to replace the Scottish defender at the back.

“He’s got a bit of a calf injury, so he is going to be struggling for this weekend it looks like,” said Warne, speaking to the Rotherham United website.

“Woody trained Tuesday so we will look at him today; obviously, I’ve got Angus as well. I think Curtis starts training next week as well, so we go from one to five centre-halves pretty quickly.

“We shouldn’t have a problem for this weekend – we should be good.”

Former Sheffield Wednesday youngster George Hirst joined the Millers on loan from Leicester City this week and could feature in this weekend’s fixture.

On-loan Tottenham Hotspur forward Troy Parrott is ruled out of the game with a quad injury as he still waits to make his debut for Millwall, however, Rowett revealed that he is “hopeful” that he will be back in training by the end of the week.

“Troy is making really good progress but it’s almost certainly too quick,” the Millwall boss told London News Online.

“I’m hopeful he can be training by the end of this week and then get the sessions in next week so we can see where we’re at.

“We don’t want to rush him, but equally we want to get him back involved and get him some match minutes.”

Frank Fielding could be back on the bench after returning to training, but Billy Mitchell will not feature.

Predicted lineups

Rotherham United (4-4-1-1): Blackman; Harding, Ihiekwe, A. MacDonald, Mattock; Ogbene, Wiles, Lindsay, Sadlier; Ladapo; Smith.

Millwall (3-4-3): Białkowski; Hutchinson, Pearce, Cooper; Romeo, Williams, Thompson, Malone; Mahoney, Smith, Wallace.

Form guide

Rotherham began the season with a disappointing result, exiting the Carabao Cup on penalties to League Two side Salford City. However, they followed that up with an opening day victory against fellow Championship newcomers Wycombe Wanderers. Michael Ihiekwe headed home the only goal of the game at Adams Park in the 92nd minute.

As previously stated, Millwall remain unbeaten this campaign, starting with 3-1 Carabao Cup wins over low-level opposition in Crawley Town and Cheltenham Town. Sandwiched in between those cup ties was a goalless draw with Stoke last Saturday.

Ones to watch

Michael Ihiekwe

The 27-year-old is a strong, powerful defender who will be key to winning Rotherham many points with his expert defending. His presence at the back will be key against many of Millwall’s options up top; the centre-half makes 1.5 tackles per game and is only dribbled past on average 0.3 occasions per game.

Matt Smith

Rowett has a plethora of forward options up top to choose from, however, he may want to select Matt Smith to lead his line against the Millers after scoring two goals in the Lions’ opening three games of the season.

It will not be a pretty contest between these two sides, and Smith’s strength and height may be able to help combat the stubborn style of Rotherham's play. Smith is a real aerial threat for Millwall, winning 7.5 headers per game out of a total of 12.4 headers over the course of last season.

Last time out

The game ended in a goalless draw when these two sides last met at the start of February 2019 in a game that was devoid of any standout chances from either team at the Den.

The last time they faced each other at the New York Stadium was in August 2018, where the newly promoted Millers came out with a 1-0 victory courtesy of Sean Raggett’s first-half header.

Rotherham are unbeaten in four games against Millwall.