Four takeaways from Millwall’s 1-0 win at Reading – Coops leads by example as play-offs look a realistic target

Millwall made it five wins in a row for the first time since 2012, with a 1-0 victory against Reading at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Lions moved up to 10th in the Championship table, three points off the play-offs.

Jake Cooper sealed the victory in the 37th minute, when he headed home a Jed Wallace corner to send the sold-out away end into raptures.

Reading showed some sort of reply in the second half without actually creating a huge amount and the South London club held on for another valuable three points.

Here are Kai Bennett’s four takeaways from the game:

JAKE COOPER SINKS FORMER TEAM

The centre-back had a pretty good day at the office, scoring the winning goal and keeping a clean sheet. He took on the captaincy and certainly justified it with his leadership.

The former Royals defender scored the winner for the Lions in the first-half, a bullet header which was the difference between the two sides.

Cooper wasn’t just the matchwinner on Saturday, he made 10 clearances – more than the entire Reading team (eight).

The 27-year-old had a difficult battle against Lucas Joao but won seven aerial duels to Joao’s two, showing he definitely came out on top against the Portuguese striker.

Gary Rowett labelled Cooper as “invaluable” to the Millwall side after a superb showing.

PLAY-OFFS ON?

Despite both Gary Rowett and Jake Cooper not getting drawn on the question in their post-match interviews, Millwall have a genuine chance of reaching the play-offs after five wins in a row.

The Lions have flirted before with finishing in the top six – an eighth-placed finish two seasons ago followed by an 11 place finish last season.

Millwall are three points outside the top six. It makes tomorrow’s fixture at Blackburn a tasty encounter, as the South London club are five points behind fourth-placed Rovers with a game in hand.

The Lions are showing all the right ingredients to make the play-offs – consistency, determination and a willing to work for each other. At the moment they are the outsiders and the underdogs, which tends to suit the Lions down to the ground.

LIONS DEFENCE BACK TO IT’S BEST

One thing Millwall have prided themselves on since Gary Rowett came in has been their excellent defensive record. Bartosz Bialkowski was joint top of the number for clean sheets in the Championship in his first season at the club.

The Lions once again showed good consistency with keeping shutouts last season but up until recently had dropped off a bit.

Millwall have kept five clean sheets in their last eight games – the same number as their past 23 matches before that, conceding five in the other games against Fulham (a 3-0 defeat) and one against both Derby County and Cardiff City.

But their resolute, compact and stubborn defence looks to be back. The Royals had plenty of possession on Saturday but still failed to break down the Lions back five – nor did they look like troubling Bialkowski.

With Shaun Hutchinson out, it was always going to a test. But Daniel Ballard, who has just returned from knee surgery, has stepped seamlessly in to replace the Lions skipper, with Gary Rowett describing his return as “massive”.

When Millwall don’t look as potent in front of goal, which they didn’t against Reading, it’s important their defence stays strong to ensure one goal can win a game.

MILLWALL DEPLETED BUT DETERMINED

The Lions have had an extremely unlucky season on the injury front, but with the recent results – anyone looking in from the outside wouldn’t guess it.

The South London club’s substitutions showed their depleted squad yesterday, with Connor Mahoney, who has only featured twice in the last nine games, coming on to replace Jed Wallace.

Ideally Rowett would be turning to the likes of Oliver Burke, Luke Freeman, Tom Bradshaw and Sheyi Ojo – all four are more than good enough to to start as well – but the lack of numbers and squad depth in the Millwall camp hasn’t hampered their climb up the table.