Millwall goalscorer Connor Mahoney urged to “force the action”

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Connor Mahoney scored his first Millwall goal since his summer move from Bournemouth – and manager Gary Rowett revealed that the winger had a sitdown with him over the Christmas period.

Mahoney netted in today’s 3-1 win over Luton Town.

“He came to see me last week.,” said Rowett. “We sat down, had a one to one. I really just said ‘I’ve got to be able to trust you out of possession as much as in possession’.

“That was the challenge really. Because he’s a laid back character they don’t always outwardly show that drive as much as some of the other players, but he’s not that type of person naturally.

“He’s got to get it out of himself. He’s got to go and force the action – be a bit more proactive in terms of what he does.

“I said to all the players in there ‘listen, if we’re doing the right things as a team then the players who are not in the side have got to make it very, very difficult for me to pick a team every week’. That’s the type of squad we’ve got. The players who are out of the team have started to respond, the players in the team have got to fight hard to keep the shirt and it means we can make some changes and effect games.

“It’s quite a few games where we’ve changed it and the substitutions have affected the game. Not because tactically it’s anything amazing but because the players are coming on with a brilliant, brilliant attitude. That’s been a key factor again today – to go 1-0 down on a difficult pitch – it’s no-one’s fault but it’s a difficult surface to play quickly on – to show that character, drive and desire epitomises what we’re about as a team.”