Millwall face a crucial six-pointer this weekend when they host fellow-strugglers Bolton Wanderers at The Den.

Phil Parkinson’s men are second-bottom of the Championship, level on points with the Lions, but five goals worse off.

Neil Harris will be hoping his side will be able to learn from their dramatic late defeat last time out when they threw away a 3-2 lead in the 92nd-minute to lose 4-3 to league leaders Norwich City.

And during the international break, Harris gave his players a chance to speak their minds about what went wrong in the late collapse at Carrow Road.

The Lions conceded twice in injury-time at, the eighth and ninth goals they have shipped after the 85th minute of league games this season.

“After the Norwich game the disappointment is we conceded two injury-time goals and lost a game from a commanding position,” Harris said.

“Looking back, did we deserve to win game? Probably not. It was very even in chances so a draw probably would have been a fair result.

“The negatives from the game we’ve reviewed with the group,” Harris added.

“[We] Challenged the players to have an opinion and we have to address those minor errors that we’re making and getting punished for at the moment, as we did last year and probably the year before. 

“In the first half of those seasons, we ironed out the creases and became a very strong unit."

The verdict

It is a positive step for Neil Harris to ask for the players to see what went wrong rather than telling them.

They have all had two weeks to mull over the defeat and train well ahead of this weekend’s crunch fixture at the bottom of the league.

Having picked up 14 of their 16 points at The Den this season, it is going to be an afternoon of expectation for the home fans going up against a Bolton side similarity bereft of confidence.

There were undoubtedly positives to take from the Norwich defeat that Harris and his players can take into Saturday’s clash, but there are also a lot of negatives that need to be eradicated during the Bolton game if they are to get anything from it.