High stakes Millwall v Palace encounter could prove low on goals

Millwall host rivals Crystal Palace in a high stakes renewal of the South London derby which sees both sides are scratching for points for different reasons. A home win would secure Championship football at the New Den for another season, whilst an away victory would guarantee a play-off spot for the Eagles – as a result an ultra tight match is expected with Coral going 8/11 about under 2.5 goals in the fixture.

Crystal Palace couldn’t have picked a better ground to visit in search of a vital than that of Millwall who are bottom of the Championship’s home-games-only table. The Lions have scored a paltry 24 goals in front of their own support all season, failing to win all 14 of their 22 matches.

Unfortunately for Ian Holloway’s men their own form on the road hardly inspires confidence. Since the ex-Blackpool string-puller picked up a 2-1 victory at Peterborough in his first away game in charge, Palace have managed a solitary away win in 14 league matches, losing six of their last 10.

Such indifferent form “on location” means the Eagles come with a low-scoring-travellers guarantee, having failed to score more than two in an away game this term, even during their Dougie-Freedman-inspired rocket to the table top. In 10 road fixtures since the turn of the year they’ve bagged more than once on just one occasion, drawing a blank in six of those outings.

News that the Eagles’ 29-goal top-scorer Glen Murray is traipsing through a seven game goal desert will ease the troubled minds of Lions fans sweating on relegation. A visiting goal has been enough to guarantee at least a share of the spoils in their last 10 home games.

A narrow win for either side could be foreseen as a possibility, but with both sides in the bottom three of the Championship’s six-game form table it’s likely these rivals will be concentrating on not shooting themselves in the foot more than shooting their opponents full of holes. Coral go 10/1 and 11/2 respectively about 0-0 and 1-1 stalemates.