Neil Harris knew improved Millwall display was coming after Lions hold firm against Leeds

Jed Wallace steers in the game's opener for Millwall
REUTERS
James Benge15 September 2018

Neil Harris toasted a performance he knew was coming as Millwall held their own against Championship leaders Leeds to earn a 1-1 draw at The Den.

After three defeats in a row Millwall could, and arguably should, have had all the points in a match after Jed Wallace converted from a long throw-in flicked on by Murray Wallace. Even after Jack Harrison brought Leeds level five minutes before the end the Lions had chances to win it, with substitute Tom Elliott going close.

Harris was convinced his side, who managed to impose their physical style on Leeds, “could have easily had four goals from set plays” and did not agree when it was put to him that Marcelo Bielsa believed his visiting side had deserved to win the game.

“What game was that?” he asked jokingly. “It was a game without a huge amount of chances. We matched Leeds throughout the course of the 90 minutes.

“When you’re playing against a top side - and Leeds are a top side - they’re going to create the odd moment of brilliance. They had a couple of chances with clever play or slight errors by us and the goalkeeper made a good save. But we scored a perfectly good goal, created a lot of chances and at the end should have won the game.

“Am I bemoaning only getting a point? No. I could be negative and say we conceded a last minute goal but I’d rather concentrate on us being really pleased with a point.

“It was a performance I knew was coming from the group’s attitude over the last few weeks. We lost three games in a ten day period and at this football club it’s almost a disaster. That’s how far we’ve come. I take it as a positive. That’s when you know you’ve got good players because there’s expectations level.

Harris' side have six points from their opening seven games
PA

“I’m disappointed for my players that they didn’t get three points today.”

The renewal of a fierce rivalry threatened to turn ugly on the touchline in the closing minutes when both coaching teams were at each other’s throat.

Bielsa was quick to take responsibility due to his greater experience than Harris, to whom he apologised, but the Millwall boss brushed off any prospect of drama.

“It’s just football, isn’t it? We should have given the ball back quicker in our dugout but you don’t because it’s two minutes to go and you’re 1-0 up at home. Obviously they got excited when they scored a goal but I spoke to Marcelo downstairs and there’s no problem whatsoever.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in