Lack of pressure helping Millwall’s play-off push – Harris

Posted Sunday, April 08, 2018 by PA

Neil Harris believes the lack of expectation on Millwall is aiding his side’s push for the play-offs.

The Lions’ unlikely charge received another boost with a 2-0 win over Bristol City which extended their unbeaten run to 15 games and moved them within a point of the top six.

Goals from Jed Wallace and Steve Morison dented Bristol City’s chances of making the top six as they fell four points behind sixth-placed Middlesbrough.

Harris said: “We’ve got ourselves into a really good position, but it’s a different feeling for us.

“It’s not like Middlesbrough, Derby, Brentford – they think they should be in the play-offs. They expect to be in there – Villa fans expect them to win the play-offs, Fulham fans too.

“We don’t expect it, we don’t expect anything. All I expect is a work ethic. But if we do get in there, we’ll be a tough team to stop in the play-offs.”

Bristol City started the game the brighter, Bobby Reid looking dangerous inside 30 seconds and winning a free-kick in a dangerous area – but when Joe Bryan’s set piece hit the wall few would have imagined it would be the visitors’ best moment of the first half.

Harris’s side were happy to sit back and absorb pressure, but when they did attack they looked the more threatening team and were rewarded by a moment of magic from Wallace.

Ben Marshall and James Meredith worked the ball well down the left before the former slipped a pass through a static City defence to find Wallace on the corner of the box.

There was still plenty for the winger to do as he controlled the ball but Wallace did it brilliantly, looking up and curling a stunning strike over the despairing dive of Frank Fielding to dip into the top corner of the net.

Millwall doubled their lead in the 52nd minute when Lee Gregory took advantage of some poor defending to stretch the back line, then found Morison with a brilliant backheel and the Lions captain finished emphatically.

Harris added: “The first goal was real class, the second, we get the ball from back to front, but once we win the first contact Lee Gregory’s backheel was outstanding. If that was in the Premier League that’d be shown time and time again.”

Opposite number Lee Johnson had no complaints about the result and said his players had shown the club’s badge a lack of respect.

He said: “They controlled the game out of possession. The possession stat will be in our favour but that means nothing.

“The position we’re in, everything is about getting the result. We failed to have the bottle really, to provide the action that counted.

“There’s no excuses. We haven’t shown the Bristol City badge enough respect in the last four or five weeks.

“I said to the players, you can believe all the noise you like after the Manchester City and United games, it’s all a load of rubbish. None of it’s true, it’s all propaganda.”