Competition: Sky Bet Championship

Venue: The Den

Date and Time: 19/12/14 at 19:45

Millwall and Bolton Wanderers lock horns in a Sky Bet Championship fixture at the Den on Friday evening.

Millwall face Bolton at the Den
Millwall face Bolton at the Den

The hosts head into the game sitting 20th in the second tier, with Ian Holloway's side accumulating 23 points from their 21 league fixtures this season.

Following a bright start to the season in the opening couple of months, the South-East London side are now somewhat embroiled in a relegation dogfight.

However, the Lions recorded three points in their last fixture, courtesy of a solitary goal from Lee Gregory in a 1-0 win away at Brighton last Friday evening.

Bolton meanwhile are in a rich vein of form heading into the bumper festive period, with Neil Lennon's men unbeaten in their last six games, with the Trotters enjoying an upturn in form in the last month or so, and currently lie in 18th position.

Having drawn their last two games, Bolton will be keen to get back to winning ways in the capital.

Team news: Millwall 

Manager Ian Holloway is set to be without Nicky Bailey, who is continuing his recovery from a calf muscle injury he sustained last month, just days after recovering from the same injury which forced him out for two-months.

Veteran full-back Carlos Edwards will also be missing for the visit of  Bolton, having picked up a long-term knee injury earlier in the season, in a game against Nottingham Forest at the Den back in September.

Club captain Alan Dunne may return to the starting line-up to partner former Bolton man Danny Shittu in the back-four.

Millwall also have a selection dilemma of who to start up-front, with Lee Gregory, Ricardo Fuller and Martyn Woolford all vying for places in Holloway's starting team.

Team news: Bolton Wanderers 

Bolton make the trip south full of confidence following a fine run of form, which has seen the Whites rise several places in the league standings, since Neil Lennon's appointment back in October.

Andrew Lonergan is likely to remain in goal for the meeting at the Den, having deputised superbly in-between the sticks when Adam Bogdan was out injured, with the 31-year-old looking to confirm his number one spot in the long-term.

The Trotters are themselves dealing with an injury crisis, with several key players out injured, giving Lennon a real selection headache.

Max Clayton was added to the list on Thursday morning, when Neil Lennon confirmed that the 20-year-old striker will be out for the season with a ruptured cruciate ligament.

“It’s a clean cruciate if you want to call it that, where there’s no complications with it,” Bolton boss Neil Lennon told BBC Radio Manchester.

“He’s a fit young lad so you are looking at maybe six months, which seems a lifetime away, but hopefully for him it will go quickly and we’ll have him for the start of next season.

“It’s a blow to us because he was playing very well, and it’s a blow to the lad to get to the form he was in.”

Fellow strikers Craig Davies and Joe Mason have also been ruled out of the game, with Mason facing eight-weeks on the sidelines with a torn hamstring.

This means that it is likely that Eidur Gudjohnsen is set for his first start at the club, having made his second debut in last Saturday's draw with Ipswich, with the 36-year-old Icelandic forward signing on a free transfer last month.

Prediction: Millwall 1-1

Both sides are likely to cancel each other out at the Den, so I'm predicting a draw.