Jed Wallace: My Millwall goal against Brentford was like a prime Timmy Cahill

Jed Wallace joked that he was being compared to Millwall legend Tim Cahill after his headed goal in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Brentford.

The Lions winger guided home Mason Bennett’s cross to finish off a well-worked first-half move at The Den.

And Wallace mentioned it was the kind of trademark finish that Cahill produced during his time in SE16.

The 26-year-old has netted 28 times in 179 matches for Millwall.

“I’m not going to pretend I anticipate scoring many headers this season,” said the attacker. “I think I’ve played 300 games in my career and scored three headers, so one in every 100 isn’t bad.

“That’s my first headed goal for Millwall. I’ve played 170 games for this club – so one in 170 isn’t a bad ratio!

“The lads are saying I was like a prime Timmy Cahill in there – but I don’t want to put words into their mouth!”

Wallace got 10 goals – and the same amount of assists – in the 2019-20 campaign.

But the former Portsmouth and Wolves man netted just once in the final 21 league outings.

“I was disappointed last season that I didn’t get myself a few more goals after starting well,” he said.

“Naturally with more quality coming into the squad – with Benno and Connor [Mahoney], who I think will have a big season, plus Scottie [Malone] who is very offensive full-back down that left-hand side means I’ve got to be more selfish and wander into the box and hope things fall for me.

Wallace felt that Millwall put in their best display of the new season against the fancied Bees.

Ivan Toney’s penalty was the first goal they have conceded this season.

The Lions have banked five points from a possible nine.

“It’s a positive and a negative, because we haven’t played well this season and picked up four points from [the first] two games,” said Wallace. “It’s a catch-22 that we want to be hard to beat, but we want to be better.

“We saw on Saturday that when we play against a good team who open up and play possession it opens up spaces for me, Mahlon [Romeo] and Benno to counter attack. You saw the importance of Woodsy [Ryan Woods] in the second half getting on the ball.

“You saw signs of what a good side we’re going to be. Bradders [Tom Bradshaw] had a great chance and if we’d scored that you’ve be talking about two of the best goals we’ve scored in a long time.

“It feels a much more positive point than the Stoke one.”

“That move we had for Bradders’ chance is what we’re trying to do. As players we need to show more responsibility – not just be a Millwall team that battles hard. I believe we can do that.”