Neil Harris delight as Millwall make absolutely sure of Championship status in style with 1-0 win at Sunderland

Neil Harris was delighted with the win and the clean sheet that his Millwall side produced at Sunderland this afternoon as they made mathematically sure of Championship safety with a 1-0 win.

Duncan Watmore scored in the 71st minute against his former side.

“I think myself and Mike (Dodds, Sunderland boss) will both be a bit disappointed with how we used the ball, ” said Lions head coach Harris.

“The game didn’t have bundles of quality in it. It was a typical end of April game of football for me. We came searching for a clean sheet today – I make no bones about that. We came with a clean sheet mentality, we wanted to carry an attacking threat as well, of course we did, but with the aim of getting a clean sheet. We did that and I’m delighted about that.

“I’m delighted for the players. Resilience, we had that in abundance today. We showed all the Millwall traits in abundance.”

It’s now 20 points won since Harris arrived at the end February.

The Lions were outside the relegation places just on goal difference and the Lions legend admitted that he didn’t see the team being in such a comfortable position with two games to spare.

He said: “I couldn’t have envisaged being in this position seven weeks ago when I took over, being level on points with teams in the bottom three, to win six games out of 11 is a great achievement by the players.

“To reach my demands, I’m quite demanding, loud and eccentric at times around the training ground and the players have responded brilliantly. My job was to come in and galvanise the football club and get us to safety, I certainly think I’ve done the first one and very, very close to the second one barring a miracle.

“I want to praise the players for buying into what I’ve asked and to try and teach a group of players to be a good Millwall team in such a short space of time takes a lot of buy-in from the players.

“Fortunately, nine were here. I signed nine of them, gave debuts to others coming through the academy but to the lads that weren’t here, some young players that have come from Premier League clubs, to play the way I want them to play, the way Millwall teams have to play then credit to them.”

PICTURES: BRIAN TONKS