Yesterday afternoon, Millwall faced off against Nottingham Forest in a behind closed doors training friendly out in Portugal.
With both clubs in the area for pre season training work and preparations ahead of the August kick offs a game was arranged and Millwall lost two one.
Jamie Philpot scored our goal in the game as he headed home at the back post following a delivery by new signing David Worrall.
It was only a narrow loss and speaking ahead of the game, manager Neil Harris told the official site.
‘It’s a standard 90-minute game and the plan is for every player to get a half. We’ve prepared in and out of possession and done video work while we’ve been here. There have been training sessions after those bits of analysis so we can really reiterate our messages to the players. The tactical element of the game isn’t sorted overnight but this has been a very good starting point for us and the first 90-minute game is the start of real preparation for the season ahead.’
With him having clear goals of what he hoped to achieve from the 90 minutes, speaking post game he was clearly happy with most of what the game provided to us, other than being more clinical in front of the net – but obviously that sharpness will come as pre season itself progresses.
‘It was an excellent workout for the boys. They each had 45 minutes and it was against really testing opposition in Nottingham Forest, who had already played a game so were a little ahead in their pre-season work. We controlled the first 45 minutes and deservedly took the lead when Jamie scored a goal of real quality. It was a slick passing move and the cross from David was excellent, as was Jamie’s finish. But despite creating numerous goalscoring opportunities we couldn’t quite find another in the first-half.’
He went on to explain.
‘Forest were the better team in the second period but I was still very pleased with what I saw from the boys out there today. They carried out many of the tactical points we’ve put across to them well and, importantly, we came through unscathed. There are areas of improvement for us but that is to be expected at this stage of our pre-season preparations.’
Vital Millwall on:
