Millwall attacker Zian Flemming on positive pressure of Championship play-off challenge and assesses his goal return

Zian Flemming is happy to be under pressure to deliver Millwall a Championship play-off spot – admitting it is a stark contrast to grinding Fortuna Sittard to Eredivisie safety last season.

The Amsterdam playmaker, 24, will look to add to his 15 goal involvements in his debut campaign in England in tomorrow’s crunch clash at promotion rivals West Bromwich Albion.

Flemming joined the Lions in a £1.7million deal in the summer. He scored the decisive goal to keep Sittard in the Dutch top flight last season.

“Sometimes pressure is not always a negative thing,” Flemming told the South London Press. “It can be a good thing that pushes you to, or even through, your limit.

“Pressure for relegation is a lot different to pressure for promotion, or for something positive.

“I’ve been there last year and I can tell you that the pressure on relegation is just horrible. Every day at the club, the atmosphere is bad. Everything feels negative. You’ve got to fight for every single point and you’re going to have to celebrate a point.

“Here it is different. Everyone is in a good mood and there is a good atmosphere. The bar is raised, obviously, because you can’t be happy with a point any more, and you only play for wins. But you can achieve something nice instead of avoiding something terrible.”

Millwall have not reached the play-offs in England’s second tier since 2002.

The Baggies and Norwich City have both been recent members of the Premier League.

Millwall were last in the top flight in 1990, suffering relegation shortly before it was rebranded as the Premier League in 1992, with broadcasting deals bringing huge financial rewards.

“There are a lot of teams in and around the play-offs who are a lot bigger recently – who have been in the Prem or gone up and down a few times,” said Flemming.

“From that perspective we are perhaps a bit smaller and a bit more of an outsider. But, at the same time, this team has been close already to the play-offs for three years.

“Now we are ready to do it.

“Maybe the first thought might be that we’re a bit of an outsider but people who have been following the league intensively, they kind of would have seen this coming – as a stable growth each season.

“We’re growing again this season, because we are higher than we were at this stage of the last one. It’s why I don’t think other teams will be surprised that we are up there.

“Now it is a matter of really finishing it off when it is most needed. I still think if we talk about pressure then it must be bigger with the likes of West Brom, Watford and Norwich – those kind of clubs that have just been in the Prem.”

Flemming was man-marked by Huddersfield’s Rarmani Edmonds-Green in the last action before the international break, Danny Ward’s goal inflicting a 1-0 defeat on the South Londoners.

“It was the first time that it was that extreme,” said Flemming, when asked about the special measures taken by Terriers manager Neil Warnock. “Sometimes you do notice they are paying more attention, but if you’re running away from goal then it isn’t as extreme that he keeps following you around – they will tend to pass you on.

“Against Huddersfield, it was everywhere. He was up my a*** all the time. You have to work a little bit harder to get free, to get half a yard. I did get it a few times but I didn’t manage to get the goal in those tiny moments. I still got the ball, but because they were sat so deep it was hard to get the ball in those great positions.

“It was a new experience for me. They are in the survival mode, to avoid relegation, so they are doing everything to disrupt the opponent instead of playing your own kind of game. The teams we are about to face are not in survival mode, they are doing quite well.

“They probably won’t use that tactic but I’m ready for teams if they do have an extra eye on me.

“If I’m man-marked or even double-teamed in certain situations or areas, it’s a new challenge for me. It is why you have to keep trying to improve all the time. You can’t just keep scoring goals, doing well and think it will always be the same because if you start scoring goals then those kind of things will happen – because teams will analyse our team as well.

“You have to find slightly new ways to be able to get your goals or draw the attention, if they have it on me, to allow others to make that goal. It could look like I haven’t done it, or whatever, but in the end it is about the team.”

Flemming has scored 13 goals, with two assists.

“I’m really happy with the numbers now,” he said. “Let’s say if I could’ve signed for that at the start of the season, I would’ve been happy with that.

“But I haven’t, and I never really do, put a goal in at the start of the season. This season I also couldn’t really expect anything as well, I first had to get used to the league. It’s harder to set a goal when you don’t know how it is.

“Normally I just do it goal by goal. I just want to get the first one ASAP and once I’ve got that I’m bored on just having one goal and I want a second, and a third.

“Ten is always nice, when you hit the double figures. But there is not much time of enjoyment for me. It’s always maybe one day after the game you might be a bit happy you reached 10 goals but then you immediately go ‘I want 11, I want 12’.

“It’s not ‘I’ve got 10 – now I want 20’. It is goal by goal with me.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD AND BRIAN TONKS