Millwall have the third-best defence in the Championship heading into Friday’s crunch game with Fulham.

The Lions have conceded 40 goals in 43 games - and it’s played a major role in their remarkable promotion push.

Only the current top two, Wolves and Cardiff, have a better defensive record than Millwall.

“It’s important for the whole squad,” Lions boss Neil Harris said. “We have to defend without the ball quite a lot during the game. We have our structure and our triggers when to press and not to press.

“The players understand it and adhere to the rules. Results don’t lie. We’ve had results and we’ve had clean sheets, 18 so far this year in the league.

“We’ve got the third best defence in the division which shows what we do works. We’d certainly like to get that from 18 to 19 on Friday night.”

Fulham, the Championship’s second-highest scorers, are likely to dominate possession at the Den on Friday evening.

But as Millwall have shown throughout the season, they can hurt teams on the counter-attack.

“I think they will probably have a bit more of the ball than us on Friday night, that’s safe to say,” Harris added. “Then again every team probably has a bit more of the ball than us.

“We’ve got no qualms with that, Fulham are a very good footballing side and have some great technicians with the football.

“If we’re not going to have the ball our shape will have to be very good, and it has been second half of the season.

“We have to make sure that when we do have the ball we’re ruthless with it and clinical and use it wisely.

“On Saturday at Sheffield, we had some exceptional passages of play with the ball to get into some really good areas. We manipulated the ball to get into wide areas but then didn’t use it very well. We’ve certainly got to be better than that on Friday night.”