Millwall victory over in-form opposition underlines ‘crazy’ results in the Championship

Ryan Leonard has talked about the “big” three points that Millwall collected on Saturday.

The Lions ran out 1-0 winners against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday – ending a run of three successive defeats – with Mihailo Ivanovic’s late header making it a successful start for caretaker boss David Livermore.

“It wasn’t the easiest game to play in or on the eye but we got the three points, that’s the only thing we care about at this stage of the season,” said Leonard. “We’ve got quite a busy run coming up. To get the three points in a manner like that is big for everyone at the football club.

“It was very scrappy conditions were tough with the wind and the pitch was a bit bobbly as well. I’d say they found the conditions a bit tough as well but we aren’t worried about the look of the game today – getting the winner in the way we did was huge for everyone.”

It was the perfect way to end a busy week in SE16 following Neil Harris’ departure after the 1-0 loss at Middlesbrough last Saturday.

Leonard was very quick to praise the togetherness of the dressing room.

He said: “I’ve been saying it for a while now, our biggest attribute is our togetherness, our team spirit. We showed it again today.

“Mika has come on, it’s his first year in English football, and got a late winner here at The Den. It doesn’t get much better than that. It’s a huge achievement for him and for the football club. It’s been a crazy week. It’s nice to finish it with three points heading into Christmas.”

Blackburn had been on a six-match winning run which had included five consecutive clean sheets before their visit to SE16.

“It’s a tough league, if you look at results throughout the league everyone tends to beat everyone in strange situations,” said Leonard. “They had won six in a row, we had not won in six and all of a sudden we go and beat them 1-0. The league is crazy.

“You can never get too downhearted when you are losing and you can never get too high when your winning. It’s a really tough league, we are really happy with certain aspects of today and there’s stuff to build on heading into a busy period.”

It was Leonard’s cross that Ivanovic headed into the net in the 96th minute of Saturday’s clash.

“I didn’t want to let it go out,” said the former Southend and Sheffield United player. “I wanted to keep the ball in play, to try and get it into the right area as I knew we had good players in there who could finish it off.

“I helped it into a good area and Mika did the rest, it was lovely to see, it gave everyone a bit of joy going into Christmas.”