MILLWALL assistant manager Joe Gallen believes last night’s shock defeat for Leicester at Tranmere came at just the right time for the Lions.

Runaway League One leaders Leicester arrive at The Den on Saturday to take on fellow promotion hopefuls Millwall, but the Foxes go into the game on the back of last night’s 2-0 loss at Tranmere – their first defeat in 24 games.

Gallen said: “Our thinking has got to be that every team has a poor patch during a season and this could hopefully be the start of Leicester’s.

“They’ve drawn a couple recently and haven’t been on a clean winning streak like they had been earlier in the season.

“We turned them over too and are hopeful this is the start of their poor patch and us coming into another good run.”

Millwall go into the big game full of confidence after Tuesday’s 1-0 Den win over Northampton, their first home success in almost two months.

Gallen added: “Up until recently our home record had been really good and then we ended up having some results which didn’t really go our way.

“Hopefully we are over that at home and we played well in the opening 45 minutes against Northampton on Tuesday night.

“It gave the team a lot of belief and confidence in themselves.

“We always felt the Leicester game would be a really big one anyway.

“Sometimes when it is such a big atmosphere, the recent performances can be not so much irrelevant but not count as much.

“It will be like a cup final in some ways and we always felt we could put in a good performance against them anyway.”

Millwall have picked up 12 points from the last available 15 and manager Kenny Jackett’s decision to opt for a more attacking formation have certainly paid dividends so far according to Gallen.

He explained: “The changes are down to the manager. Obviously we talk about everything but it was his decision.

“The thinking was really just to tighten up in midfield. We’ve been quite open in midfield by playing with four, including two out and out wide players.

“Sometimes you can get a bit exposed in the middle.

“Marc Laird is an attacking midfielder, so if three go forward out of four then you’ve got one left and it seemed to be poor Adam Bolder left on his own.”

Gallen added: “You can really see the players’ strengths in terms of how they actually want to play.

“There are two wide players we’ve got now who don’t necessarily have too much to do defensively by staying up high.

“It suits Marc and Jimmy Abdou because one thing they can do is run and get forward and it suits Adam because he can receive some short passes and sit in front of the back four.

“Some people are saying it is five in midfield but it isn’t, it is three up front with the two wingers told to stay wide up front with Gary Alexander.

“It just takes a little bit of the defensive side away from the wide players and you get to see them attacking. So far it has been ok.”

The assistant manager was unable to throw much light on the on-going Izale McLeod saga, but did confirm to News Shopper the troubled striker will not feature against Leicester.

“He is not in today and it is extremely doubtful he will be in tomorrow either, so Izale will definitely not be in Saturday’s squad,” Gallen said.