Manger Neil Harris has praised a ‘strong’ performance from Millwall as we took a point from Cardiff City and previewed the midweek tie with Sheffield Wednesday.
Heading to the Cardiff City Stadium to take on Neil Warnock’s battlers, Millwall withstood some pressure as we kept a clean sheet and returned with a point, but with a couple of good chances ourselves Harris knew we could’ve nicked it over the 90 minutes.
Speaking to the official site as he met with the media following the game, Harris was taking the positives.
One of those positives was the individual performance of Jordan Archer, who rightly took praise as he more than played his part in helping to keep them at bay.
‘Jordan made two really good saves in the first-half. One low down, which was a top save. When you go away from home against teams at the top of the League, you need your goalkeeper to be in top form. He was a massive part towards us keeping a clean sheet.’
Harris was quick to share praise around though as he knew the whole team had ‘competed’ on the day.
‘I thought we were excellent in the first 20 minutes, but then there was a period in which Cardiff dominated the game. I felt really comfortable and pleased with the second half – we competed. Away from home, it’s a really strong performance by us and a clean sheet is a really good achievement. Cardiff are a strong and experienced Championship side, with a lot of know-how at this level.’
With Lee Gregory being pulled down at the beginning of the second half, for the gaffer, it was a nailed on freekick and red card and he knew that could’ve made the difference.
‘We should’ve had a penalty at the beginning of the second-half – no question about it. It’s a foul and it possibly changes the game if it’s given. We could be coming away with three points and they’re down to 10 men.’
With a trip to Hillsborough up next for the side in the midweek fixtures, Harris called on the team to put in another ‘positive display’ as he spoke to the press earlier today for his pre game commitments.
‘It was no easy task to go to Cardiff and get anything out of the game. They’re at the top of the division for a reason. They have a big, strong, attacking side and they counter-attack really well. I was pleased with our performance in the sense of getting a clean sheet, but slightly disappointed that we had two really good one-on-one chances with Lee Gregory and Steve Morison and didn’t take them.’
With the side yet to take victory on our travels, Harris admitted he wasn’t dwelling on it and he was seeing enough to know it would soon come.
‘It bothers me that we haven’t scored enough goals away from home, but we’re keeping clean sheets. We’ve created chances in those games – it would be interesting to see the stats on how many shots on goal we’ve had at home and away, because there wouldn’t be a lot in it. We’re looking dogged, organised, resilient and aggressive away from home. Everything that we want to be, we are. We’re just missing that final touch – that final end product. I’m confident in my players that that will come. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing. It doesn’t matter where the points come from to stay in this division as long as they do come. At the moment, we’re amassing them nicely.’
With Carlos Carvalhal’s sitting one place below us in the Championship table, Harris did however know that they were a quality side and we had to be up for it.
‘Sheffield Wednesday will be a tough game. It’s scary to think of the amount of attacking quality they have – a vast array of talent. It’s a great challenge for us. We have to embrace Hillsborough, it’s a great place to play football. We’ve got an opportunity to express ourselves and play with freedom on Tuesday. It’s important we put in a positive display before what is a massive home game against Burton Albion on Saturday. There’s a few knocks and niggles from Saturday’s game, as you get when you play Saturday-Tuesday. There’ll be some late decisions on a few players, but if they don’t make it, we have more than able replacements.’
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