Despite losing three two to C.D. Tondela at the weekend in our final first team friendly of the summer, manager Neil Harris has said he feels Millwall are ready for the coming 2015-16 League One campaign now with the progress the players have made since returning to pre season training.
Audio – Millwall Are Ready
Fred Onyedinma and Shaun Williams both found equalisers for us at The Den in the game as we fell behind twice, but our hosts found the winner with just over 20 minutes remaining in the game and we couldn’t come up with a final answer for that – but it was a good run out with plenty of positives for the gaffer to take.
Millwall:
Forde, Cummings, Webster, Craig, Beevers, Onyedinma, Upson (Powell 86), Williams, L.Martin (Cowan-Hall 76), Marquis, Gregory.
Subs not used:
Archer, Nelson, Romeo, Thompson, Pavey, Philpot.
Scorers: Onyedinma (14), Williams (45).
Bookings: Marquis.
Speaking to the official site following the game, the gaffer was all about the positives of a very productive summer for us as we look to bounce back from Championship relegation last season.
‘I’m certainly frustrated that we didn’t win the game. But I was really pleased with the two goals we scored. The first goal was outstanding as a counter attack and the second one was exactly the same to win the free-kick, which was a great delivery and a great finish. We’ve been talking about set-pieces and end product and we got it. I was delighted with our tempo, with our shape in the team, but disappointed at times that we didn’t keep the ball slightly better. But we can’t underestimate that we were playing against a top flight side from Portugal that were quick and organised.’
Harris goes on to say that overall it was certainly another ‘good’ work out for the boys and he felt it was a good and exciting game to end the pre season campaign on, so he’ll definitely look back at the last six weeks with pleasure and seeing it as a success given how far he feels we’ve come in that period.
‘The boys are ready to get going in the League now.’
With Joe Martin and Jimmy Abdou both missing the game, Harris confirmed that they had picked up knocks but if they both miss the Shrewsbury opener, they should be back pretty quickly after that.
‘We have been a little bit unfortunate with a couple of niggles in the last week or so. Joe blocked a shot in training and, similar to Aiden (O’Brien), has just damaged his ankle ligaments. Jimmy has a slight hamstring problem that we couldn’t risk and he probably won’t make Shrewsbury but will hopefully be back in training the week after.’
Vital Millwall on:
Vital Millwall on:
Harris On Successful Pre Season
