Millwall matchwinner Jake Cooper: We went back to the drawing board
Jake Cooper revealed that Millwall went “back to the drawing board” following the 2-0 defeat on Saturday against Luton – and added that the Lions need to be more “aggressive” at The Den.
The centre-back scored a stoppage-time winner on Tuesday evening at Sheffield United. The South London club have produced back-to-back away wins for the first time this season and the 2-1 victory moved them up to 10th in the Championship.
Cooper told Millwall’s official website: “We scored an early goal, we started the game really well – on the front foot, pressing them – and they were struggling to play their good football.
“Jed scores a goal – a bit of luck maybe involved – but we’ve had that against us, so it was great. Things were looking well and then the penalty, which was a bit of a setback. They got on top of the game, made it difficult for us and then the red card changes the game, and we were in the ascendancy.
“We had to take the game to them and we created a few good chances. Fortunately, we’ve come up with the good stuff at the end to get the three points.
“No [Jed didn’t mean to shoot] definitely not, but he’s got great quality – so it’s brilliant for him to be scoring goals and he’s doing really well. It’s a pleasure to have him in the team.
“Playing against 10 men is something that we’ve struggled at before. It is difficult. We have to take the game to them. We did well, we created a few chances on the counter-attack and probably deserved a goal by the end. We got there in the nick of time.
“I was dying to get in the crowd again [after scoring] but I’m on three yellows so I have to be careful now. Once I struck it, the feeling was incredible. Great night again.
“We were really disappointed after Saturday, the way we performed at home. We were disappointed as a group, the players and the staff.
“We went back to the drawing board and looked at a few things that make us who we are and what makes us a good team. We showed that brilliantly tonight.
“How we play on the front foot, how we press the other team, how we play in behind, create chances from set-plays and on the counter-attack and I thought we did that brilliantly tonight. We’ve just got to take that into the home games now and show how aggressive we can be back at The Den.
“The winning feeling has been back in the last few weeks. To win three out of four games now is key, obviously we’re disappointed with Saturday. We can now learn from that and take a good performance into our home games and we’ll be looking to do that on Saturday.”
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