Millwall midfielder seeking to eradicate ‘inconsistent’ Den performances

Ryan Leonard wants Millwall to end their hit-and-miss record at The Den this season – starting with a victory over Hull City on Saturday.

The Lions had the third best home record in the Championship in the 2021-22 campaign, only automatically promoted pair Bournemouth and Fulham taking more points.

Millwall were eighth in a home table for last season, banking 39 of their 68 points in SE16.

But last weekend’s 3-0 defeat to Swansea was a third loss in five league matches in the current campaign and they also lost heavily to Reading in the EFL Cup.

Gary Rowett’s side are 18th in terms of home results.

“We have been inconsistent so far this year – especially at The Den,” Leonard told the South London Press. “The last four or five years, since I’ve been here, we haven’t really been an inconsistent team before that.

“We’ve had a couple of poor performances and we’ve had a couple of really good performances. It’s something we know as players that we need to address and put it right. There is no point in this league going and performing really well in two or three games and then performing really poorly for two or three games.

“It’s a relentless league. Every team has got quality, especially at the top end of the pitch, that can hurt you.

“We know as players we need to put our home form right and we can only do that by continuing to work hard as do the best we can.

“Away from home we have put in some really good performances – putting the Norwich game to one side, we have been pretty solid.”

Rowett talked after Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Swansea about not liking the way his players reacted to falling behind.

Leonard said: “Over the last few years teams realise The Den is one of the hardest places to go – it’s not an easy away game. But we’re not naive enough to think we’re going to score the first goal every single week.

“There are going to be times we need to take responsibility and really up our game when that happens.

“There are times we score the first goal and we look really fresh and really good. The main thing is that the 11 out on the pitch need to stick together and work for each other – which we have done in the five or six years I’ve been here.”