The Panel's EFL Tips: Tom Lee's Championship Double For Game Week 6

Tom Lee's Panel Tips For This Weekend

• Tom Lee's Panel Tip 1: Millwall To Beat Luton Town - 13/8 With Unibet
• Tom Lee's Panel Tip 2: Blackburn Rovers To Beat Bristol City - 11/10 With SpreadEx

Millwall Vs Luton Town, Saturday, 12.30pm

"The first goal will be important." 

"It's always a hard place to go."

If like me, you find lazy, meaningless, bland football commentary irritating, those two phrases must surely come out somewhere near the top of an all-time list of silly remarks delivered by supposed experts, paid to explain those nuances of the game us mere mortals could never spot with our own eyes.

I mean, who'd have thought the opening strike in a traditionally low-scoring sport would be vital?!

That said, supporters of Millwall will rightly point to their current fortress-like record at their renowned residence, The Den, Bermondsey, South East London venue proving an extremely tough nut to crack for visiting teams in recent times.

For starters, drill down to their staggering home record since all-time top scorer and former boss between 2015 and 2019, Neil Harris, agreed to return on an 18-month contract back on February 21.

It's easy to forget, at that stage The Lions languished in 21st position, a precarious one point above the relegation zone. 

The Harris-effect kicked in immediately, his rejuvenated troops going on to secure an astonishing 26 points from his 13 league games in charge to the end of the season, from the 39 available. 

However, it's at home where they really made hay, winning five and drawing one of their six games in which the club legend held the reins, including the scalp of subsequent champions Leicester City. 

To be precise, those end of season results with the right man at the wheel looked like this: Millwall 1-0 Watford, Millwall 1-0 Birmingham, Millwall 1-1 West Brom, Milwall 1-0 Leicester, Millwall 3-1 Cardiff, Millwall 1-0 Plymouth.

They eventually finished a more than respectable 13^th in the Championship, but what of the early knockings of the 2024/25 campaign?

The season began with a rare home defeat, going down to a late, late winner having fought back to 2-2 against Watford thanks to a Duncan Watmore brace.

More late goal heartbreak followed when losing 4-3 at Bristol City, this despite another Watmore strike, but they were much more like their usual parsimonious selves when chiselling out a hard fought 0-0 at Hull towards the end of August. 

Reward came last time out when a raucous Den witnessed them well and truly take their early season frustrations out on Sheffield Wednesday, the Owls dismantled 3-0 in a game which featured a fourth league goal for that man Watmore. 

Next up come floundering Luton Town in an early game on Saturday afternoon, the Hatters having made a calamitous return to the Championship following their relegation from the top flight in May.

Too bad to be true? 

Maybe, but sections of the support are already grumbling about boss Rob Edwards, and those complaints will be magnified if Millwall do what I expect them to, namely take all three points on Saturday lunchtime. 

At 13/8 with betting sites they're a huge price to do so, and they're leg one of the double. 

Tom Lee's Panel Tip 1: Millwall To Beat Luton - 13/8 With Unibet

Blackburn Rovers Vs Bristol City, Saturday, 3pm

For the second component we'll stick with the Championship theme, as Blackburn Rovers get the vote in their home game with Bristol City.

Ewood Park will surely be anticipating goals for this one, the home team having slotted in nine in four, the visitors having conceded eight in the same number of games. 

Despite the departure of star man Sammie Smozdics to Ipswich, Rovers have begun very well.

Manager John Eustace will be have been delighted to not only win both opening home league games, but even more so to get a point in the local derby at Burnley last time out. 

Rovers had to play well over half an hour with only 10 men there following a red card for Makhtar Gueye, but with backs to the wall they saw it out to remain unbeaten in the league. 

You can well imagine the dressing room will have been buzzing after that effort, and at odds of 11/10 the good work can continue on home soil. 

Tom Lee's Panel Tip 2: Blackburn To Beat Bristol City - 11/10 With SpreadEx

Summary: The Millwall/Blackburn win double is in the region of 9/2 with SpreadEx