As Coventry City celebrate promotion back to the Premier League after 25 long years away, the race to join them is suddenly as clear as mud. Coventry secured automatic promotion to the top flight on Friday night with a point at Blackburn. But the battle behind them for an automatic slot is promising to go down to the wire.
After a comfortable 2-0 win over QPR on Saturday, Millwall leapfrogged Ipswich into second place, taking full advantage of the Tractor Boys' wobble against Portsmouth on Tuesday. But Kieran McKenna's side can make amends on Sunday lunchtime if they beat fifth-placed Middlesbrough. A win would lift them back into the automatic promotions spots with a game in hand.
Meanwhile, Southampton are coming up on the rails on the back of a seven-game winning run that has catapulted them into fourth in the Championship table. And with Ipswich facing Boro and Saints in two of their final four games, trying to second guess who comes second has become almost impossible. Simply being in the conversation in mid-April for automatic promotion shows how well Millwall have performed this season.
Few outside The Den might have expected this, but write off manager Alex Neil and his experienced campaigners at your peril. An impressive draw at Ipswich and then a comeback win at Middlesbrough even had the Lions in second after the Good Friday fixtures. After dropping to third for a brief time, goalscorers Derek Mazou-Sacko and Camiel Neghli sent Millwall back into second with a convincing win over QPR.
Midfielder Massimo Luongo has pointed out, a strong dressing room is one of the keys to their success. "Everyone underestimates what goes on in the Millwall changing room," the Australia international told the 72+. "The loss to Norwich - you saw at the end of the game, a few boys were down holding their heads, which I don't personally like, and then the reaction of the draw with West Brom.
"We are so laid-back, we don't care. We won't go too high, we won't go too low." Millwall will secure a play-off place with one more point from their final three games - at Stoke City and relegation-threatened Leicester City before Oxford United visit The Den. But Neil says he and his players are looking beyond that while they remain in the hunt.
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