Millwall produced the result of the weekend in the Championship as they beat automatic promotion-chasing Nottingham Forest 3-0 at the City Ground courtesy of a first career league hat-trick from Matt Smith.

The Lions arrived in NG2 with their play-off hopes hanging in the balance after three league matches without a victory, but blew Sabri Lamouchi's men away with three goals in 13 first-half minutes to move within two points of sixth-placed Preston North End after their defeat at QPR less than 24 hours later.

Smith's well-placed header opened the scoring after 20 minutes before the former QPR frontman doubled Millwall's lead six minutes later after Jayson Molumby's goal-bound effort deflected in off the forward and into the bottom corner.

Remarkably, Smith completed his treble moments later after climbing highest to head home Shane Ferguson's deep corner.

Here, we take a look at three things we learnt about the Lions after their City Ground mauling.....

Mason Bennett makes his mark on return to the Midlands

Having made an encouraging start to life at The Den since joining for the remainder of the season from Derby County in January, Mason Bennett was handed another opportunity to showcase his talent from the start against the rivals of his parent club.

Bennett's every touch might have been greeted with a chorus of boos from the Forest faithful, but the on-loan Rams forward wasn't affected in the slightest.

The 23-year-old's pace proved to be an excellent outlet for Millwall on the flanks and he topped another fine display by providing the assist for Smith's second goal with an inch-perfect cross for Molumby before his effort deflected in off Smith.

The only downside for Gary Rowett is that Bennett won't be able to repeat this performance against Derby on Saturday as he's ineligible to face his parent club.

Matt Smith grabs opportunity with both hands

You'd imagine that not even Matt Smith himself had envisaged his Friday night in Nottingham going so smoothly.

The 6ft6 striker, who arrived at the City Ground having not found the net for almost two months, took advantage of some lacklusture Forest defending by netting twice with his head either side of a fortunate second goal that he knew little about from Molumby's strike.

After so long watching on from the bench, the 30-year-old has earned his right to be a regular starter and Millwall's main man for the foreseeable future.

Remarkably, Smith's treble now means that only Fulham striker Aleksander Mitrovic (133 minutes) has a more prolific goals-per-minute rate than him in the Championship this season.

The play-offs are a genuine possibility

After an extremely disappointing run since beating Preston North End last month, Millwall's play-off bid is firmly back on track after this victory.

Had the Lions been beaten at the City Ground - and other results gone against them - then Gary Rowett's men could have been as many as eight point adrift of sixth-place and their chances of finishing in the top-six all but over.

However, this three points, plus Preston, Bristol City and Swansea City all failing to win means that Millwall find themselves just a couple of points outside the play-off places ahead of some winnable games against Barnsley, Charlton and Middlesbrough in the coming weeks.