‘I’m proud of the team and the fans’ – Millwall fans’ favourite Bialkowski on 2021-22 season
Bartosz Bialkowski has told his Millwall team-mates to be proud of their latest Championship season.
The Poland goalkeeper believes they deserve credit for still having a shot of snatching a play-off position going into their 46th league fixture at AFC Bournemouth last weekend.
Kieffer Moore, a former transfer target for the Lions, scored an 81st minute to completely crush their dreams.
Millwall had to win at the Cherries, who had already locked down the second automatic promotion spot, to stand a chance of overhauling Sheffield United and Luton.
But in the end both clubs got the victories required to stay in fifth and sixth place respectively – joining Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield in a four-way fight for the final top flight spot.
“It’s been a great season,” said Bialkowski, who initially joined the Lions on loan from Ipswich Town in July 2019.
“I’m proud of the team and the fans. They’ve been amazing. They believed right up until the end. And we gave them a chance to believe in us. We came up short but nevertheless we gave it everything. The amount of injuries and illnesses we’ve had this season has been astonishing really. We’ve managed that pretty well and also been on a good run.
“We need to take all the positives and then have a right go next season.”
Millwall scored six more goals than they did when finishing 11th in the 2020-21 campaign and also concede five fewer goals.
Bialkowski kept 14 clean sheets, moving his total amount of shutouts since arriving in SE16 to 48.
He won back-to-back Player of the Year awards, voted for by Lions fans, and finished third this time around.
“It is another step forward [for the team],” said Bialkowski. “We have conceded less goals than last season and more than the last couple of seasons as well.
“Hopefully next year we can build on that.”
The 34-year-old, part of the Southampton squad that won promotion from League One and the Championship, did not keep a track of other results on the final day.
“No, no….I didn’t know anything at all,” he said. “Even at half-time I didn’t want to ask. We still needed a goal and we needed to win the game. We didn’t and the other results didn’t go our way either. It is an easier pill to swallow, if you know what I mean.
“We tried to go for it and when you open up a little bit, trying to score that goal, it is going to create spaces behind the line.
“It is clever play from Bournemouth, a quick throw in, and the man of the moment scored the goal.”
“We’ve been third best with our home record this season. Our away record wasn’t the best and that’s probably why we didn’t manage to get in the play-offs.”