Looking to build on a convincing home success prior to the international break, Millwall will welcome recently-relegated Luton Town to The Den for a tasty-looking Championship clash on Saturday afternoon.

The Lions have struggled with inconsistency at the beginning of the campaign, whilst the Hatters are seemingly hungover from their Premier League adventures during the 2023-24 season.

After replacing Joe Edwards during the second half of the 2023-24 term and guiding the club to second-tier safety, Neil Harris has been handed the responsibility of guiding this Millwall side to compete in the upper echelons of the division, with a promotion push the dream of supporters at The Den.

That being said, the Lions have not enjoyed the most productive start to their Championship journey this campaign, with Saturday's hosts enduring a three-game winless run at the very beginning of the term before turning on the style against Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of August.

Just seven days after a lacklustre goalless draw at the MKM Stadium versus Hull City, Millwall were at their clinical best against Danny Rohl's stuttering Sheffield Wednesday, with second-half strikes from summer arrival Josh Coburn, Duncan Watmore and Jake Cooper securing a 3-0 victory.

Making the net ripple for the fourth time already in the second tier with an effort against the Owls, former Sunderland youngster Watmore is an early frontrunner in the race for the Championship's Golden Boot award, currently sharing top spot with Josh Maja and Mark Harris.

Following a commendable return of 23 goals across two campaigns at The Den, Zian Flemming departed Millwall for title contenders Burnley on the final day of the summer transfer window, meaning that the Lions are now without a flying Dutchman who served them so well in recent times.

Following a fairytale story of reaching the Premier League for the first time in their history last year, Luton Town have been brought swiftly back down to Earth with an immediate first-tier relegation and a woeful start to their quest for a promotion charge in this season's Championship.

Luton Town's Frustration

A share of the spoils after a goalless draw at newly-promoted Portsmouth is the only positive result that the recently-relegated Hatters have managed in the second tier so far in 2024-25, meaning that they sit 23rd in the early league table, already 11 points behind pacesetters Sunderland.

Boasting attacking talent such as Elijah Adebayo, Tahith Chong and Carlton Morris, Luton are surprisingly struggling to breach the net of their Championship opponents, with Saturday's visitors to The Den scoring just twice across four league contests - only bottom side Cardiff City (one) have managed fewer strikes.

Desperately aiming to turn their fortunes around in order to mount a serious top-six challenge, the Hatters have been active in the free agent market following the closing of the summer transfer window, with former Chelsea and Liverpool midfielder Victor Moses joining the Kenilworth Road club.

Each of the last three meetings between Millwall and Luton in the Championship have ended in a share of the points, although the Hatters' most recent victory against this weekend's opposition arrived at The Den in October 2021, when Harry Cornick bagged a brilliant brace in a 2-0 win.

Millwall vs Luton Town: Match Preview

Millwall remain without the services of midfielder Billy Mitchell, who is targeting a return to action at the end of the month after suffering a hip injury in early August.

Even if Mitchell was available, it would be unlikely that Harris would opt to alter his engine room of George Saville and Casper de Norre following the thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday last time out.

After suffering a slight knock in the draw at Hull, Lukas Jensen played in net before the international break and should retain his spot this weekend.

Featuring on 10 occasions for Luton in the Premier League following his arrival in January, Daiki Hashioka is yet to be introduced to the rigours of Championship football due to a leg injury.

The Hatters are also unable to call upon the talents of Jacob Brown, who is currently fighting his way back from fitness woes which have seen him play no competitive part since February.

Millwall possible starting lineup: Jensen; Leonard, Cooper, Tanganga, Bryan; Saville, De Norre, Esse, Honeyman, Watmore; Coburn

Luton Town possible starting lineup: Kaminski; Mengi, McGuinness, Bell; Walters, Baptiste, Clark, Doughty; Morris, Chong, Adebayo

With a recently-relegated side arriving at The Den this weekend, Millwall should be raring to put in an aggressive performance against a faltering Luton outfit.

The Hatters undoubtedly possess the talent to hurt the Lions on Saturday, but we feel that Rob Edwards's troops will slump to their fourth defeat of the league campaign.

'Take your anger out on them': Doughty's rallying cry

Luton Town wingback Alfie Doughty has urged his team-mates to take their ‘anger’ out on Millwall this afternoon as they look to secure a first victory of the season.

The Hatters go into the game without a success from their five matches this term, sitting second from bottom in the table with just one point to their name. Town lost out 2-1 to QPR in their last match before the international break, letting a 1-0 lead slip in disappointing manner, as speaking to the club’s official website about today’s contest at the New Den, Doughty said: “We’re looking forward to it.

“It’s going to be a tough game going down to the Den, we know what they’re capable of, we know what their history is of hard, tough games, where you know you’ve got to make sure at it the whole game. We’re going with a lot of confidence. We’ve got a lot of players back, so as a full squad, I think it’s a lot easier now as we can use more bodies. I’m up for it just as much as the rest are.

“You just need to bully the other team, you just need to take all your anger out on them really, that’s what we need to do on Saturday. We just need to dominate in every part of the pitch which is why I think now Saturday is more important because if we come out of this international break with three points, we’re going to jump up. We’re the first game on Saturday, it will help and we do need to sort ourselves out for this before the next international break in three weeks time. We haven’t got easy games, but we can make them easy if we play at our best and if we play at our best we’re unplayable.”

Although Town haven’t picked up a result yet, Doughty believes the work done in the last fortnight will put them in good stead, adding: “We had a couple of days to settle after the QPR game and then we were in the next week. We had an in-house friendly which was good, to get more minutes in, it’s looking positive.

“We’re doing the right things, we’ve been playing well, we just haven’t been getting the results. It’s going to have to change as we’ve been dominating every game but just haven’t been getting the results. So we’re going back into this game with two weeks of hard work and now it’s time to put it on show.”

The Hatters need to channel their frustration into a positive result, and Doughty's rallying cry could be the spark they need to get back on track. Will they be able to take their anger out on Millwall and secure a much-needed victory, or will the Lions continue their strong start to the season?