Jed Wallace’s decision to quit for West Brom has only ramped up battle to be main man at Millwall

Tyler Burey reckons that Jed Wallace’s summer exit from Millwall has only dialled up the battle for attacking positions.

Wallace has been one of the major sources of goals and assists at the South London club but rejected a new contract to join West Bromwich Albion on a free transfer.

But Burey is a strong believer that other members of Gary Rowett’s squad will step up to replace the former Portsmouth and Wolves player’s influence.

The 21-year-old underlined his finishing ability with a spectacular curled strike in Tuesday evening’s 2-0 friendly win at Dartford.

And there was plenty of excitement about the former AFC Wimbledon winger’s impact when he proved unplayable and scored in back-to-back victories over QPR and Derby in February.

Burey had netted three times in his opening five games on loan at Hartlepool in League Two at the start of last season before a serious hamstring tear sidelined him for more than three months.

Fifteen of his 27 Championship appearances came in the previous campaign and Burey is looking to enhance his reputation and follow Wallace in becoming the next fans’ favourite at The Den.

Club record signing Zian Flemming and George Honeyman will be expected to be major contributors in the final third.

“Jed was a big player for us,” said Burey. “But I’m also looking at it for myself and what I want for my career. The way I do that is being able to get the chance to step up and take that ownership of being a main player – scoring goals and assisting.

“I learned a lot off Jed. He’s an experienced Championship player who produced at that level week in and week out. I took on the tips he told me and what I needed to work on – the same as the coaches here who give me good advice.

“Yeah, you can say it is big boots to fill because he has been doing it for a very long time. But it is only a matter of time before someone else does it. It could be me, it could not be. My target is to work hard, learn and get at least double the stats I did last season.

“It was a really positive season despite being out for a long time with the first ever injury that I’ve had. I did well at Hartlepool, came back and scored my first Millwall goal. I got my first start in the Championship as well. There were goals and boxes that I ticked off.”

Burey started just twice after the 0-0 draw at Blackburn at the start of March, struggling to produce the same impact in the final third after a rampaging display at Pride Park.

“Every game is different, some games there is more space and in some it is tighter,” said Burey. “You never know how a game is going to pan out until you’re on the pitch.

“There were players coming back from injury [which affected his game time].”

Asked if he felt opposition defences made special plans to nullify him, Burey replied: “I was maybe on the radar a bit, but not enough for teams to be saying: ‘Be careful of this player’. They might have had glimpses of me scoring, but two goals only gives you a tiny bit of that. I’m a person who always wants more.”

Millwall continue their preparations for their July 30 league opener against Stoke with a friendly at Colchester tonight.