Millwall able to seize the day in newest shot at ending look forward to top-flight soccer
If they beat Blackburn at The Den right now, they may attain the play-offs and be as near the highest flight as they’ve been in three a long time.
Millwall have suffered close to misses in every of Gary Rowett’s earlier three seasons in cost, both falling away from the highest six or developing quick, and the 49-year-old is cautious of his gamers being dazzled by the clearest glimpse but of the promised land.
“Of course, the Premier League is the prize but if you focus too much on the prize you’re going to lose your footing along the way,” Rowett stated. “It’s like the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. You can see the prize 100m ahead and there’s arrows flying all around you. And if you purely focus on the prize and don’t have your wits about you, you [lose] focus on the obstacles in your way.”
Those obstacles have included dispiriting defeats by Birmingham and rock-bottom Wigan, suggesting Millwall have been headed for an additional collapse, however Rowett’s facet recovered to beat Blackpool 3-2 final Friday, leaving their destiny in their very own palms in opposition to Rovers, who should win to sneak into competition themselves.
“The gaffer proved his experience in the build-up to the Blackpool game,” stated captain Shaun Hutchinson. “As players, we were all devastated by the situation we’d put ourselves in. He had a meeting with the senior boys and pressed the reset button. We were refreshed and a lot more focused.”
Whatever occurs on Monday, Rowett believes Millwall have made “massive progress” (although they’ll solely end with two extra factors than final season), and there was no magic method to their enchancment.
“What’s separated this season from past seasons is consistency,” stated Hutchinson, their longest-serving participant. “This team has an incredible knack of finding a way of getting a result, and that’s a skill in itself. And we’ve had a more competitive squad. This season we’ve had players on the bench who are more than capable of changing a game.”
Striker Tom Bradshaw is having the season of his life, with 17 league targets and counting, the likes of Billy Mitchell and Danny McNarama are a 12 months extra skilled, stalwarts reminiscent of Hutchinson and Jake Cooper have continued to carry out and there are promising younger gamers coming via.
The summer time recruitment was additionally canny, a combination of skilled Championship heads in George Honeyman and Duncan Watmore, promising children together with Leeds loanee Charlie Cresswell and a marquee signing in Zian Flemming.
‘The Bermondsey Bergkamp’ has lived as much as his moniker, and his ice-cool winner from the spot in opposition to Blackpool was his fifteenth league aim, main Rowett to explain him and Bradshaw as probably the most deadly pairing within the division.
“I’ve never seen a foreign player come into the league and settle as quickly,” Hutchinson stated of the club-record signing. “He has an aura about him that gives the team confidence. The first day he walked in, we said, ‘I wouldn’t sit on that peg mate, it’s cursed. The past three players haven’t performed and been sold’. And he said, ‘No problem, I’ll change that’.”
In a season the place the popularity of American homeowners in English soccer has taken a battering, because of Chelsea’s Todd Boehly, Rowett believes chairman John Berylson additionally deserves a share of the credit score.
Consistency has performed a component in being a powerful Championship membership.
Berylson, a Boston native and New England Patriots fan, is used to his groups successful, however his affected person and astute working of the membership since 2007 has helped Millwall, who’ve the sixteenth greatest price range within the Championship, to constantly punch above their weight.
“He values continuity,” Rowett stated. “He doesn’t change managers willy-nilly, he trusts people to do their jobs. He’s incredibly supportive and he’s a winner.
“I know he’s put a lot of his personal money into the club. He doesn’t seek the limelight. He does everything you’d want a good owner to do. That consistency has played a part in being a strong Championship club for a period.”
The dream is to not be a Championship membership for for much longer, and Monday’s match is shaping as much as be one of many greatest of their trendy historical past at a sold-out Den.
“There’s one big game left,” stated Rowett. “They know what’s at stake.”