Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth is expecting the challenge to be upped a level tonight.
The Gills competed well at the weekend against Championship side Charlton Athletic but next up are a team who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League last season.
Millwall lost out to Hull City in the Championship play-offs two months ago and are the visitors to Priestfield for the 7pm kick-off.
Ainsworth said: “Millwall are going to be an even sterner test than Charlton.
“They almost got into the Premier League. Alex Neil is a really good manager. I’ve played against and managed against him a lot.
“I know what we’re going to get. We’ll get another stern test.
“Their boys are going to be fit. We’re going to be out of possession. We know in certain games in League 2, we’ll be out of possession. But in certain games, it’ll be like the Dover game where we have the ball and we can manipulate it.
“It’s not always easy keeping the ball against these Championship sides. They’re there for a reason. That’ll be a tough test.
“But I’m sure the fans will turn up and, again, get behind some of these young boys that are coming through and some of these new signings that they’re having a look at.”
Strikers Will Goodwin and Ronan Hale could be back after sitting out the weekend clash.
Ainsworth said: “There’s a big chance of them [playing] on Tuesday night. I’m not going to risk players at the moment.
“We’ve got a behind-closed-doors game, a couple of games coming up, and the Ebbsfleet one. We’ll be full cylinders by then, hopefully.
“Then even the Luton game in the Carabao Cup. I want to win it, but also it’s another opportunity for people to get match minutes.
“The league’s the big one [on August 8]. I would love a cup run, but it’s going to be tough. Luton are a good side, a very good side. We’ll go in that and go, right, we want to win this game, but that Walsall game, that’s where I want to start and I want to crash it and have a right go at the league this year.”
Ainsworth has continued to look at Nick Freeman, with a view to handing him a permanent deal. With a smaller senior squad, the versatility of the former Wycombe player would tick a lot of boxes.
The Gills boss said: “Nick played for me about six years, seven years at Wycombe and got a promotion to League One and a promotion to the Championship with us. He’s a quality player.
“There’s more to come from Nick, I think. Nick will say, ‘there’s more to come from me’, but he’s solid, covers ground and gives his legs in the middle of the park, and that’s something we’ve missed over the years.
“We still want a couple more in. Two or three in the building before I start the season or before the end of the window, just to make my squad as full as I want.”
On versatility, Ainsworth added: “We have a couple of multi-positional players. I think Robbie McKenzie so far has played right-sided centre-back, as a ten, and as a central midfield player in the three games.
“We had one game behind closed doors amongst ourselves. Having multi-positional players is really important. It’s something that we’ll have to work on. I want to slim the squad down.
“There’s been way too many players here in the past, and that becomes difficult for a manager.”
Full-backs will also be on the wishlist. With Remeao Hutton leaving for Chesterfield, it leaves him looking for a right-back, on top of needing to fill the void on the opposite side.
Ainsworth has so far played wing-backs in the matches at Dover and against Charlton, with Sam Gale operating on the rigth flank at the weekend.
“I thought Sam did OK,” said the manager.
“I think Sam’s an athlete as much as anything, and he’ll never give up. He’ll be up and down that wing.
“We can work on some of the finer details that we think might make him into a good fill-in right-back now and again, a right wing-back.
“He’s a fantastic 1v1 centre-half as well. We’re not discounting him there.”
