Millwall boss Harris on relegation rivals dropping points and win over Leicester: It’s been a positive couple of days

Millwall head coach Neil Harris has described the midweek round of Championships matches as “really positive” after Birmingham City, Blackburn and Stoke all lost on Wednesday night.

The Lions had the perfect result earlier this week as Ryan Longman’s stunning strike ensured a 1-0 victory over league leaders Leicester City.

Millwall are four points clear of the bottom three with four matches left to play, starting with a home game against Cardiff on Saturday.

Former Lions boss Gary Rowett’s Birmingham City went down 1-0 at home to Cardiff in midweek. Blackburn were thrashed 5-0 at Bristol City while Stoke were beaten 3-0 at Swansea City.

“Obviously it is hard not to take any notice – watching parts of games and checking your phone – because you want results to go your way and help carry that momentum that we built again on Tuesday evening,” Harris told the South London Press.

“Over the course of the 48 hours it has been a really positive couple of days – league table-wise. But none more so than us taking care of our own business.”

Most of the bookies have Millwall at 30/1 or 25/1 to lose their League One status.

The South Londoners are 17th in the table.

“We have to look at the big picture and where we want to be in four games time,” said Harris. “I have to focus on what I can control and that is Saturday’s fixture, at the moment. Since coming back in that has been the key ingredient for us – taking it one game at a time and not getting ahead of ourselves, not expecting a result in any given game.

“This is Millwall Football Club. The last seven days have shown us that we can’t plan ahead. We are an unpredictable football club – always have been.

“We have to focus on Saturday and make sure we provide the same standards and same discipline – with and without the ball. The desire we showed to win a game of football against Leicester, we have to produce against Cardiff.

“What two disappointing, last-minute defeats at Rotherham and Huddersfield showed us is that if we drop our standards and lower our attributes at all then we can make things difficult for ourselves.

“We have got ourselves 14 points from nine games by being disciplined, setting standards and having the desire to win points – that has to be the same for the next three weeks.”