In-depth with Neil Harris on achieving mission number one at Millwall – safety in the Championship

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

There is a motivational sign that greets you at Millwall’s training ground – ‘Everyone wants to eat, but few are willing to hunt’. But the Lions – in danger of becoming malnourished prior to Neil Harris’ return in February – have fed well since he restored their pack mentality.

There is a reason that the South London club’s supporters prefix their head coach’s name with the word ‘super’ in chants.

Neil Harris is Millwall’s all-time record goalscorer. Neil Harris was at the managerial helm when Millwall won the League One play-offs in 2017. And now Neil Harris has come back and ensured that their seven-season stay in England’s second tier will become an eighth in August. Super indeed.

The Lions’ 1-0 win at Sunderland on Saturday made mathematically sure of safety.

Millwall have collected 20 points from their 11 matches under Harris. It is a total only bettered by three teams – Leeds, Norwich and Cardiff with 21. They have matched the return of an Ipswich team pushing for the top two over that period.

Fears of relegation intensified in the latter stages of Joe Edwards’ short tenure but Harris stripped the team back to the fundamentals – aggression, combative and being a proper handful at The Den.

Harris’ first match set the tone, Millwall winning at Southampton for the first time since 1989.

“I knew 50 points was the target we set when I came back in,” Harris told the South London Press. “To get 17 points in 13 games. With the fixtures we had, and the way things were going, we thought that would be a tough ask but realistic as well, if we could get the Den form going.

“We thought if it went pear-shaped at 50 points then, as a football club, we could say: ‘We’ve had a right good go at that’. Maybe for the football club over the course of a season it wouldn’t be acceptable but for me, in the short term, it would be an achievement in itself, to get those points.

“So when we got there after Cardiff (a 3-1 home win on April 13) I felt calmer. But I still didn’t want to come back to The Den, against Plymouth and have that scenario of so much to play for, for both teams.

“Don’t get me wrong, that is what we’re involved in football for – those emotional moments – but I’d much rather be in the situation we’re in now then if we were fighting with Plymouth to stay in the division.

“When we got to five o’clock on Saturday it probably summed up our season – we did our bit and we were 99.9 per cent sure to stay up but still couldn’t celebrate because we were waiting for a result down the M6, at Rotherham! The over-riding emotion was that three wins in a row is great for any team at this stage of the season- and it was a strong performance.

“That waiting period (for the other result) was a little bit bizarre.

“I felt relief, excited and proud. It is a big achievement for us, as a group, because we have been written off a couple of times this season. We were written off when I first came in – the team can’t win or play at The Den – and we got written off after Huddersfield, that although we’d got our mojo back we weren’t quite going to do it. But we have.”

Harris pulled the Millwall players and his backroom staff into a huddle on the pitch at the Stadium of Light.

The Lions social media team filmed the moment but the noise of the travelling support made it hard to hear what he was saying.

“It wasn’t Winston Churchill,” said Harris. “I tend to save that for before games!

“It was more ‘well done today, well done for the last 11 games. These are the moments in your career that define you, as men and individual players. Let’s take this moment but make sure we finish next week at The Den in style’.

“The reason I did it there on the pitch is that I felt it would be powerful for the fans. When you first asked me why I came back I said my job was to galvanise the club and keep the team in the division.

“We’ve kept the team in the division and I’d like to think I galvanised the club in my first interview and in my first game, at Southampton.

“It was another moment I thought we could share. Not just with the 700 fans who travelled to the game – it’s not cheap to go to Sunderland – but also to be able to share it with the friends who couldn’t be at the game.

“Even from 50 metres away, the ridiculous distance the supporters were from the pitch, it was sharing the moment with them.”

There was no alcohol consumed on the team coach’s journey back to the capital.

“Brilliant application, performances, points total and results – The Den form – congratulations for all that over the last seven or eight weeks,” said Harris. “But as a football club we didn’t want to be in this position.

“Of course it is disappointing probably off the back of the last nine seasons, when I started to grow it and then Gary (Rowett) and Joe took it on before me being here again.

“It’s not where we want to be – fighting relegation with three games to go – but that’s football and the cycles of Millwall Football Club.

“There has to be some admiration at stopping the cycle now before a real low point. But there was no celebration afterwards in the dressing room or driving back. There was a brilliant atmosphere – but there has been after every game, although not so much after the two defeats. The Huddersfield one was probably the gun-wrenching one.

“It wasn’t the time for the players to be opening champagne and cans of beer for that achievement.

“I couldn’t in my wildest dreams imagine us being safe with two games to go or be at 50 points with three games to go.

“That’s why I’m quick to praise the players but also, and I do it every day, the staff as well and the part they have played.

“It’s fine saying: ‘Chopper, you know Ads (Adam Barrett) – you brought him in. You know Andy Marshall, you played with him and have been friends a long time. I’ve known Percy (Sam Percival) over the years and Paul Tanner, the physio – the kitmen and Alex Aldridge’. But they have still got to buy into me coming in.

“I point it out to the players, individually and collectively, I am eccentric. I’m loud. I can be demanding as well.

“The staff have been brilliant. I can’t praise them enough.

“Players will always be judged on performances and a block of games, whether that is 46 or it is a five-game block, of course they will. Every player has played their part.”

Harris has managed Millwall for 259 matches. Three of those were as a caretaker and then 245 in his first stint as manager between March 2015 and October 2019, when he chose to resign.

His body of work in SE16 is hugely impressive.

“Millwall has always been a good fit for me,” said Harris. “A lot has been asked and written about when I  left and why I left – it was all in good faith and for the right reasons.

“It was the right time but probably just a couple of months too late. I’ve been really honest why I’ve come back now – to support the football club.

“The reasons why I have come back and how long I’ve come back for are really clear. It is defined. I’m really comfortable with it and really comfortable working with Jimmy (Berylson, owner), who I’ve known a long time. We’ve always had a very trusting relationship.

“It is really exciting. This is Jimmy’s first gig as the owner. It is his first year (stepping up after his father passed away in July) and he has got some tough decisions to make. It is tough running a football club in the modern era and Jimmy needs guidance, support, advice and also to have fun doing it.

“This is the start of hopefully things to build on. There is loads of work to do. I’ve been quick to praise staff and players but things do have  to change. I’m here for a reason – because it has not gone so well over a period and they have had to turn back to me.

“My job is to make sure when I leave here – as I have done in all my previous jobs – that the football club is in a far healthier position. That is what I take my biggest pride in.”

Harris’ contract runs until the end of next season. Considering the impact made, it throws up the question whether the former Lions striker’s terms will be extended.

“My own situation is very clear and I’m not going to talk about it again after this point,” said Harris.

“I’ve come here over a period of time to enjoy myself and help the football club – that’s all.

“I love working here. I love the football club with my whole heart – it means so much to me and my family.

“I will lead with the best of my ability and then it will be on to the next man.”

Whenever that day comes, there will be very big boots to fill.