Millwall players not discussing play-off prospects despite three straight Championship wins

BY ALEX GRACE

Shaun Hutchinson says that the play-offs have not even been discussed by Millwall’s players despite the side being just one point outside the Championship’s top six.

The Lions disposed of Watford in SE16 on Wednesday night thanks to Tom Bradshaw’s hat-trick, and Hutchinson was keen to praise his team-mate.

“We looked really good in the first half, caused them a threat, and they couldn’t really handle us. It’s nice to go 3-0 up.

“He [Bradshaw] put himself in the right positions, and sometimes when you play in the formation that we are playing in with Flemming in the 10, it gives him the responsibility of always being the focal point in the box for the tap-ins. When you are playing two up top, you can get carried away trying to do too much He’s playing that position really well just now. He’s been clinical and tonight will have given him a lot of confidence to move forward too.

“We wouldn’t always be like we were in the first half. When something is working, there is no need to change it, it’s something we were saying on the pitch. It’s working, so let’s keep doing it, and it showed in the end and put us three goals up.”

Watford have struggled with playing back-to-back matches since the appointment of Slaven Bilic. His two wins so far have come after a full week without a game, and that is something the Lions skipper alluded to.

“On paper, if you look at their attacking force, they are a right handful.

“In a midweek game, after a Saturday, teams could be a little bit sluggish. The main focus was making sure we started well when you start well it sort of takes the wind out of their sails, and you could see that that for the first 10 minutes, they were sort of at it, but as the goals kept going in you could see them getting a little bit deflated and the flair players maybe not fancying it too much.

“We managed the game really well and just dealt with all of their threats really well, other than a little bit of sloppiness towards the end.”

Jake Cooper earned praise from his manager for his performance, and Hutchinson echoed those words.

“He’s becoming a big threat in these deeper free-kicks and these throw-ins because he’s just such a handful to deal with. In the air, and even when he doesn’t win it, he attracts three or four people to the ball, and that frees up other people. His performances over the last few weeks have been really, really good, and it’s important we get him playing to his highest ability because he’s a top, top defender in this division.”

Tomorrow will see Jed Wallace make his first return to SE16 since he departed the club for West Brom in the summer, and despite the Baggies’ slow start, Hutchinson is well aware of the quality the former Millwall man possesses.

“It’ll be interesting. He’ll be at it. We all know his qualities, so it’s important for us to keep him as quiet as we can, but also, we’ve got a job to do, and if we keep playing like we are playing and not slacking up at all, then it gives us the chance to keep the run going.”

Victory tomorrow could see the Lions move into the top six, but the play-offs are not on the mind of Hutchinson and his team-mates.

“We haven’t even discussed that, as a team, the most important thing we are looking at is being a tough unit and hard to beat. At times at the start of the season, we were conceding goals. We were a bit fragile in terms of conceding goals, but the most important thing is focusing on being hard to beat and being a proper Millwall team.”