Jake Cooper left frustrated at Championship referees failing to punish penalty box foul play

Jake Cooper is not expecting Championship referees to start punishing the opposition’s illegal attempts to nullify him from set-pieces.

The giant Millwall defender is a focal point for any deadball deliveries and tends to get so many first contacts in the penalty area.

But officials also seem to turn a blind eye when Cooper is impeded.

“I’m trying not to let it get frustrating,” the former Reading centre-back told the South London Press. “It’s a positive thing that teams are giving me that respect, to mark me like they do.

“We’ve started working on a few ways to get around that. I had two brilliant chances again on Saturday [in a 3-0 defeat at Sunderland] and Zian [Flemming] had one cleared off the line.

“I had one saved by the keeper in the first half that bounced down and I had another that I headed wide in the second half. It’s about sticking with it. We have scored so many goals in the first half of the season from set-pieces that more will definitely follow.

“People are going to take note of how we are effective, just like we do the opposition. It’s about keeping it fresh and coming up with new ideas to stay as effective as we can.”

Cooper, 27, has scored 21 goals in 274 matches for Millwall – two of them coming this season.

Asked why there is more leeway for physicality in the box, he replied: “You’d have to ask referees. We got told they were going to be less lenient with things – that they were going to pull people to the side and speak to them when they could see grappling going on.

“But all I hear is ‘both players are at it’. What am I supposed to do? Just let them hold me and keep my arms by my side? I’m not a Russian doll. I have to put up some sort of fight.

“In terms of getting penalties, that is not top of my agenda. I’m just trying to be as effective as I can and win the ball in the box.

“I speak to referees about it in every game, but am I expecting to get a decision any time soon? Certainly not.”

Cooper is intent on Millwall righting the wrongs of their last match.

The Lions spurned good chances to score at the Stadium of Light and were punished in the second period as Amad Diallo and Alex Pritchard scored before the hour mark. Ellis Simms added a third from a simple long kick by keeper Anthony Patterson.

“They capitalised on our mistakes and we didn’t capitalise on their ones,” said Cooper. “We couldn’t do enough to break through in the first half and then gave them the opportunity in the second half.

“We were much the better side in the first half and I can only remember Longy [George Long] having one save to make. Pretty much everything went in for them in the second half.

“It felt like we gave them the goals in a way we shouldn’t have done. That’s been a thing this season but we looked like we had maybe put a stop to it.

“There are always going to be goals we concede as a team and things that lead to goals – we’ve got to do what we can to learn from that and make sure we don’t make the same errors next time.

“We need to put that into practise and be solid again, starting with the Wigan game this weekend.

“We have conceded five goals in our last two game and you aren’t going to get many results like that – we were lucky that we had Zian’s performance at Preston [scoring a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory]. We’ve certainly conceded too many goals in recent matches.”