Millwall assistant boss gives his verdict on 1-0 win over Reading – and felt sub played vital role

Millwall assistant manager Adam Barrett shared his delight following Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over Reading – and hailed substitute Mason Bennett for his role in helping them get back to winning ways.

Benik Afobe struck the only goal of the game to send the Lions up to eighth in the Championship – where they once again sit just outside of the play-off places on goal difference.

Millwall were booed off after a lacklustre first half performance. But a change of shape, reverting back to 5-2-3, and a double substitution in the form of Bennett and Scott Malone proved to be the catalyst for a match-winning second-half display.

“Delighted with the three points,” said Barrett. “We were disappointed with Saturday, but it’s a tough division. It’s very difficult and every game brings up a different challenge, but to come back home and put in a really good second half performance, we’re delighted.

“It depends how you play the system [on the change in shape]. I thought second half we were a lot more aggressive and the intensity of the press went up.

“Mason Bennett coming on and dealing with [Josh] Laurent was a big factor in it. He was excellent Mason. Laurent in the first half was getting the freedom of the park to do what he wanted and they’ve got good players in [John] Swift and [Ovie] Ejaria. When Mason came on and stopped Laurent getting on the ball, all of a sudden people could back it up and the intensity of the press was there. We thought it was important at half-time to really stop Laurent from getting on the ball because he was the one making them tick.

“Our directness, led by the front players, was excellent and we backed it up all over the park. Billy Mitchell was superb in the second half and Hutchy. Jed [Wallace] worked his socks off again.”

Despite creating a host of chances in the second half, Millwall failed to find a second goal to kill the game off.

But Barrett insisted that more goals will come if the Lions can keep creating the kind of chances they did against the Royals.

“We deserved to get more goals tonight,” added Barrett. “With the pressure and the opportunities we’ve had, we’d like to be a little bit more clinical and taking them chances. But the main thing is to get the win. We’re just hoping that if we can keep creating that number of opportunities then we’ll start scoring more goals.”