Millwall sit two points outside the Championship play-off places.

Rewind back to Gary Rowett's October appointment, and Millwall were slumped in the bottom-half of the Championship table - 17th-place and five points off the relegation zone.

Today, Millwall are in 8th - two points outside the top-six after their finest win to date under Rowett. Matt Smith scored a hat-trick inside 13-minutes at Nottingham Forest last weekend, and now Millwall look like real play-off contenders.

Here we take a look at three factors that will determine Millwall's fortunes in the season run-in:

More of the same from Matt

On his day, Smith is as good a striker as any in the Championship. The ex-Leeds, Fulham, Bristol City and QPR man has 12 goals in all competitions this season for Millwall, with four in his last two.

He's shared the starting spot with the likes of Tom Bradshaw, and on occasion, Jon-Dadi Bodvarsson. But with his hat-trick at the City Ground, Smith has become the club's top-scorer for this season, surpassing both Bradshaw and the talismanic Jed Wallace.

Millwall have lacked an out-and-out goal-scorer this season but in Smith they have one - Rowett played to his strengths at the weekend, and although it might mot be the prettiest style of play, it certainly works.

Retaining their underdog mentality

Smith stated this week that Millwall's underdog mentality was their 'secret weapon'. There's a lot of teams in the mix for the play-offs this season, and a lot of teams who'll be expecting a lot more from their season than what Millwall might have done at the start of the theirs.

The likes of Fulham, Bristol City and Forest to an extent were expecting to be there or thereabouts come this stage of the season, but Millwall fans probably weren't, and that's granted them this very useful, and very effective underdog title.

The closer towards the top-six that Millwall get, the more respect that teams will show them. But for now they remain relative underdogs in the play-off mix, and they must use that to their advantage.

Can you get 15 out of 15 on this Millwall quiz? Have a go now!

Getting Jed back to his best

Wallace has been Millwall's stand-out player this season. He's netted ten goals in the Championship, some of them stunning and nearly all of them important, but he's dropped off the boil since New Year.

The 26-year-old has only scored once since the turn of the year and if Millwall are to stand any chance of, not only getting into the top-six, but being competitive if they do progress into the play-offs, then they need Wallace to rediscover his earlier form.

Few midfielders in the Championship are as complete as him - he can cross, play a range of passes, score all sorts of goals, and he's a real leader too. Wallace, along with the likes of Smith, will be integral to Millwall's season run-in.