Millwall vs Coventry City Prediction: Draw on the cards at the Den?

Millwall’s play-off push has slightly stuttered of late with three draws on the bounce, but they will look to get back to winning ways as they host Frank Lampard’s Coventry City™ at the Den. This one kicks off at 15:00, as Lampard takes charge of his first away game with the Sky Blues. 

Neil Harris has won five of his nine home games so far this season, while this game also marks a return for former Millwall manager Joe Edwards to the Den, as he has joined up with Lampard as his assistant coach. Read on to find my Millwall vs Coventry City predictions. 

Team News

Millwall suffered a major blow in the 1-1 draw with Oxford, as striker Josh Coburn was taken off, and he has now been ruled out of action for two months with a broken metatarsal. He joins Jake Cooper and Calum Scanlon on the sidelines until next year, while Japhet Tanganga, who is finding the net on a regular basis in recent weeks, is suspended having picked up his fifth booking last time out. 

Shaun Hutchinson is also out having picked up a minor hamstring injury which means that Harris will have to put together a makeshift centre-back pairing to face Coventry. 

“I’ll start with the good news,” Harris told NewsAtDen on Thursday.

“Hutch has a very low-level hamstring injury. It will very likely be a no for the weekend but will be much more positive for next week whether that’s Sheffield United or Middlesbrough.

“Duncan Watmore is healthy again, he really struggled last week. We’re really thankful that Dunc is okay and he’s back into training so should come back into the squad for the weekend.”

It means Murray Wallace and Dan McNamara may play at centre-back, in front of Lukas Jensen in goal. George Saville and Casper de Norre should continue in midfield to provide some protection, while George Honeyman, Romain Esse and Femi Azeez will support one of Macaulay Langstaff or Tom Bradshaw. 

For Coventry, Haji Wright remains a big miss with his ankle injury, and he is set for a few more weeks on the sidelines. Ben Wilson is also still sidelined so Lampard will have to choose between Oliver Dovin and Brad Collins in goal. Collins has played the last few games, but the Sky Blues can’t keep a clean sheet to save their life, so summer signing Dovin may come into the team. 

Jay Dasilva may be taken out of the XI for this away game, so Jake Bidwell could make his first start since returning from injury, or Luis Binks could shuffle over to the left side of the defence, making room for Liam Kitching in the middle. 

The former Chelsea manager is likely to stick with his preferred 4-3-3 system, with Josh Eccles and Ben Sheaf certain to start. Victor Torp could replace Jack Rudoni after converting a penalty to rescue a point against Cardiff, while Ellis Simms could get the nod ahead of Norman Bassette up front.

Millwall vs Coventry City Odds

Having lost just twice at home all season, Millwall are 7/5 to win this game which gives them an implied win probability of 41%. Coventry are priced at 15/8 having only one once on the road this term, while a draw can be backed at 15/8 which could prove to be good value given the Lions have drawn their last three on the bounce. 

Only Portsmouth have a high over 2.5 goals success rate than Coventry this term, and that is priced at 5/4 to come in. Meanwhile, BTTS is 10/11, and Bradshaw is the favourite to score first, priced at 6/1 to add to the one goal he has scored this season. 

Draw @ 15/8

I was going to lean in favour of the home side, but learning about their absentees at the back has filled me with doubt. Wallace has barely played a minute this season and is well past his best, so Coventry will want to take advantage of that makeshift back four, with Simms in particular surely licking his lips ahead of this one. 

Millwall are unbeaten in nine but have drawn their last three on the bounce, while Coventry have drawn three of their last four games, taking a point against Cardiff at home in Lampard’s first game in charge. He’d only had a matter of hours with the players before that game, so I’m expecting to see a more cohesive performance here, but Millwall is a really tough place to go so I'll settle for a point.

Millwall 2-2 Coventry @ 14/1

Since Mark Robins departed, Coventry have drawn three of their last four games 2-2. They clearly have some level of attacking quality and you’d expect that to be the case with the likes of Ephron Mason-Clark, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Simms and Bassette in the squad, but Lampard will need to find a settled XI to get the best out of them. 

The main issue for Cov has been defending. They’ve conceded 10 goals in their last five games, at a consistent rate of two per match. You simply aren’t going to win many football games if that is the case, and I don’t see it changing after just one week of training under Lampard and Edwards. I’ll back another 2-2 here at massive odds. 

Offers

Place an In-Play single bet of £10 or more at odds of 1/2+ on any Premier League or Championship game on Friday or Saturday and get £5 in Free Bets to use In-Play on Sunday’s games. (Credited upon Bet Settlement).

Acca Flex: Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 100% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down.

You can read all our latest Football Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.