80 min Millwall legend Steve Morison comes to replace Ryan Tunnicliffe.

79 min El Ghazi cuts into the area from the left and hits a fierce shot that is excellently saved by Martin, diving to his left.

76 min Villa make their last change, with Keinan Davis replacing the goalscorer Jonathan Kodjia.

75 min Villa have dominated the game in the last 15 minutes, though a one-goal lead leaves them open to a sucker punch.

72 min Grealish shimmers to the edge of area and sidefoots a shot that takes a deflection, wrongfoots Martin and drifts just wide of the post. He is such a graceful footballer.

71 min Pearce drives a long free-kick to the edge of the Villa area. Steer charges out like a drunk man chasing a balloon, gets nowhere near the ball and is relieved to see Cooper’s header drift wide of the far post.

70 min “Hi Rob,” writes Aditya Iyengar. “I’m a QPR fan but John Terry aside, glad to see Villa doing so well. On New Year’s Day, we had them on the ropes in a pulsating 2-2 draw at Villa Park, well above them and closing in on the play-off places. A couple of wins against Leeds, a thrashing of Swansea and countless defeats later, we are struggling to put up a team of eleven fit players. Today at Pride Park, we’ve got a wide midfielder playing right-back, a right-back playing centre-back, a central mid playing left back and four youth team players on the bench! Oh, and also we ain’t got no manager. Man, life sucks to be a QPR fan!”

You’ll always have Dennis Bailey I suppose.

68 min Grealish’s low shot from 12 yards is kicked away by Martin, a decent save as I think he was unsighted. Grealish started the move with a nice ball to Green, who returned it to Grealish in the area. He tried to pass it into the net but put it a bit too close to Martin. It’s just about the only pass he’s misplaced all day. He is such a class act.

65 min Villa have looked sharper since the substitutions. Grealish, who is so much better than anyone else on the pitch, plays a fine pass to the right of the area for Green. He takes a touch and then, from a tight angle, slams a shot into the side netting at the near post.

64 min Aiden O’Brien comes on for Millwall to replace James Meredith.

63 min Fine play from Grealish, who waits for the perfect moment to slide a pass that allows El Ghazi to shoot without breaking stride. He catches it well, too, and Pearce makes an excellent sliding block.

60 min Dean Smith has had enough of Villa’s sluggish start to the second half. He has made an early double change, with Conor Hourihane and Andre Green replacing Glenn Whelan and Albert Adomah.

56 min: Another chance for Kodjia! I don’t know where to start with this, because Kodjia went from the sublime to the ridiculous in record time. It started with a majestic run that took him past three defenders in a very tight space on the edge of the area. That put him through on goal – but then he flicked a dreadful shot with the outside of the right foot that went miles wide of the far post.

55 min Romeo shoots well wide from distance. Millwall look increasingly dangerous, though.

54 min Meanwhile, Football Weekly has landed.

52 min More assertive play from Wallace, who runs through a couple of Villa defenders but then lashes over the bar from 25 yards.

51 min Millwall have started the second half pretty well, with a lot of possession in Villa’s half.

49 min McGinn foulds Ferguson near the halfway line, which allows Millwall to send their centre-backs forward. Villa deal with the free-kick comfortably.

46 min Peep peep! Millwall get the second half under way.

Peep peep! Villa lead through Jonathan Kodjia’s opportunistic finish in the 30th minute. It’s been a tight game, with few chances for either side, though Villa have edged it. See you soon for the second half.

45 min Jed Wallace, playing as a No10 for Millwall today, is a really accomplished footballer.

43 min An excellent left-wing cross from Wallace flashes right across the six-yard box. The ball is retrieved to Marshall, who has two shots blocked by Mings. He appealed for handball on the first, though nobody else seemed interested.

41 min McGinn turns neatly in the box and drives a low shot that is blocked by the sliding Cooper. McGinn’s inswinging corner is headed away at the far post, with Kodjia winding up for an acrobatic volley.

38 min Villa deserve to be ahead, though there hasn’t been much between the sides and Millwall look a threat from set pieces.

37 min Grealish is fouled 25 yards from goal, to the left of centre. El Ghazi’s free kick is well struck but too close to Martin, who holds it at the second attempt.

35 min Grealish’s long-range shot takes a couple of deflections and then hits Kodjia before bobbling through to Martin. A better touch would have given him a great chance of a second goal, although it came at him both quickly and unexpectedly.

34 min It’s worth repeating that

a lot of people can’t spell definitely
if Villa win today they will set a new club record of 10 consecutive league wins.

33 min A dangerous inswinging free-kick from Marshall is excellently headed away under pressure by Elmohamady.

He’s scored this time! That was a really nice, patient move from Villa. Grealish played the ball out to El Ghazi on the left. He slid a fine low cross towards the near post, where Kodjia gets in front of his man to lift the ball past Martin.

29 min: Kodjia misses an excellent chance! Leonard played a dreadful pass towards his centre-backs that put Kodjia through on goal. He charged into the area but stumbled as Martin came out, and though he went round the keeper he could only run the ball out of play.

27 min Cooper is booked for taking out Kodjia near the halfway line. Kodjia would have been through, though it would be a reach to say it was a clear goalscoring opportunity and therefore a red-card offence. Kodjia almost made the most of it, though Cooper’s uncomplaining response suggests he caught him.

26 min El Ghazi scoots past Romeo on the left and crosses towards Kodjia. Cooper gets there first to concede a corner, which is curled into the six-yard box by Grealish. Martin claims it confidently.

23 min Millwall have had the only shot on target so far, that long-range sizzler from Wallace.

22 min Grealish is fouled by Tunnicliffe down the Villa left. McGinn’s free-kick is headed over from 12 yards by a Villa player, okay. (There are no replays or live pause, with this being on the red button, so it makes it quite hard to identify players.)

20 min Mother of God. Ferguson wafts the free-kick into orbit.

19 min Jedinak sits on Gregory, 25 yards from goal. The laws of association football do not allow the use of opponents as a soft chair, so that’s a free-kick for Millwall in an excellent position…

18 min After a very slow start, Millwall have worked their way into the game and currently look the more threatening side.

16 min The resulting corner is swung beyond the far post, where Pearce cushions a dangerous cross back into the six-yard box. A Villa player – I’ll level with you, I’ve no idea who it was – dives to head clear.

16 min “When a referee has to warn against time-wasting five minutes into a match,” says Matt Dony, “you can be sure you’re in for a helluva game…”

To be fair, I think it was a misunderstanding. All Martin did was ask for a quick break so he could do his 1000-piece jigsaw.

15 min: Wallace almost gives Millwall the lead! That was a cracking effort, a stinging drive from distance that was palmed over the bar by Steer.

13 min Millwall have their first sustained spell of possession. The lively Wallace, involved multiple times in the move, eventually hits a cross on the turn that is belted away by Mings at the near post.

12 min This is so one-sided. It’s a really hot day, and Millwall are having to work like beasts without the ball.

9 min Villa continue to dominate, with the alert Cooper heading behind for another corner on the right. Grealish strolls across to take it. He curls it beyond the far post, where the under-pressure El Ghazi heads wide from four yards. That was a chance, although I think a free-kick was given for a foul on his marker.

6 min He did fancy it, and he curled it high over the bar. The Millwall keeper Martin is then warned for timewasting by the referee. In his defence, all he did was meticulously unfold a sun lounger.

5 min Grealish is flattened by Wallace, 30 yards from goal. I think Jedinak fancies this…

4 min It would be unfair to say Millwall haven’t had a kick so far. But most of them have been tackles.

3 min A confident start from Villa, who are moving the ball around smoothly. You’d think they’d won their last nine games or something.

1 min Villa kick off, from left to right as I look at my screen.

The coverage has indeed started.. The players emerge from the tunnel at Villa Park. Aston Villa are in claret and blue; Millwall are wearing their orange change strip. The third kit, produced by Macron, is sponsored by DCS Roofing as part of the deal which sees TW Drainage’s logo adorn the front of the home shirt for 2018/19 – the reverse of the previous campaign. A.T.P.B Ltd are once again back-of-shirt sponsor.

The match is live in the UK via the Sky Sports red button. My screen says ‘coverage will start shortly’. One should coco, given the match starts in a couple of minutes.

Mind the time

Here’s Alan McInally scoring a worldie, even before the word existed, for Villa against Millwall in the 1988-89 League Cup.

The teams

Aston Villa (4-1-4-1) Steer; Elmohamady, Jedinak, Mings, Taylor; Whelan; Adomah, McGinn, Grealish, El Ghazi; Kodjia.
Substitutes: Sarkic, Elphick, Hourihane, Green, Bjarnason, Lansbury, Davis.

Millwall (4-2-3-1) Martin; Romeo, Pearce, Cooper, Meredith; Tunnicliffe, Leonard; Marshall, Wallace, Ferguson; Gregory.
Substitutes: McLaughlin, Williams, Amos, Elliott, Morison, O’Brien, Skalak.

Referee Tim Robinson.

Hello. A league campaign is a marathon, but at some stage you have to sprint. Unless you’ve got the square root of bugger all left in your legs and decide to give the last lap a miss and instead have a lie down on the nice, soft, cool grass mattress giving you those come-to-bed eyes.

Most don’t choose that option, though. Aston Villa certainly haven’t. They have timed their surge perfectly – not to win the race, but maybe to end up on the podium. At the end of February, they had won two of their previous 14 league games and were the definition of mid-table mediocrity. Then, out of nothing, they walloped Derby County 4-0 to start a spectacular run of nine wins in a row. If they beat Millwall today they will set a new club record for consecutive league wins and all but secure their play-off place.

Villa’s last two games – Leeds away and Norwich at home – are not necessarily conducive to the secure collection of three points, so there’s an extra incentive to get the job done today. But Millwall’s incentive might be even greater. They are three points clear of the bottom three, with a game in hand over Rotherham, and desperate to stop yo-yoing between the Championship and League One. And they are in obstinate form, with only one defeat in their last seven games.

The last month of the season is full of matches like this: one side chasing glory, the other running away from ignominy. A clash of abilities, styles, hopes, dreams and fears. Football’s great, eh.

Kick off is at 1pm.