Stats underline just how crucial Jed Wallace is to Millwall as attacker closes in on another milestone

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

No football team is about just one player, but the statistics underline Jed Wallace’s importance to Millwall.

The 27-year-old has scored or assisted in all but one of the matches – a stalemate at Swansea – that the Lions have picked up Championship points this season.

Wallace has been directly involved in eight of their 11 league goals. It’s been his best start to a Championship season in terms of end product – with four goals and four assists after 11 matches, with illness ruling him out of the recent trip to Nottingham Forest.

And Wallace has played a huge part in Millwall’s three wins this season.

The Lions were trailing to 10-man Blackpool in late August and crying out for something special.

Wallace provided it with a peach of a free-kick that was nominated for Championship goal of the month. You don’t need telling who then produced the cross for Jake Cooper to head a 90th-minute winner.

The former Portsmouth and Wolves man had only been on the pitch a matter of seconds before he dispatched a penalty to see off Bristol City on September 29. And namesake Murray headed home his corner to earn a 1-0 victory at Barnsley just before the international break.

“It’s been alright,” is Wallace’s self-deprecating response when asked about his impact. “I’ve been quite consistent. You’re going to have more chances taking set-plays. It’s not just down to delivery. We’ve worked hard on set-plays. If Muzza hadn’t scored that header then Cooper was queueing up behind him.

“It is down to the lads in the box. I had a bit of a stroke of luck, coming on against Bristol and getting a penalty 30 seconds later, you’re rubbing your hands together.

“I want to play as many games as I can and be up near the top of the league for goals and chances created. As an attacking player that is what you get judged on.”

It’s also what gets you noticed by other clubs. Wallace has little more than eight months to run on his Millwall contract and seems to be in a very strong position.

There aren’t many Championship attackers who can boast his numbers – scoring double figures in the two previous campaigns.

He has played 201 matches at the level and is just 18 games shy of hitting 250 in a Lions shirt.

“If you’d asked me 10 years ago, when I was playing for Lewes in non-league, then I’d have taken that number,” said Wallace. “But I don’t want to settle for that. I’ve still got massive aspirations to play at the highest level I can.

“Getting to 250 games for Millwall would be a great achievement. There are a lot who have probably played 100 or 150. But once you start getting into those 250-plusses it is a lot of games for one club. I feel grateful to do that. I want to keep going and hopefully one day people might speak about me in the same breath as Jimmy Carter and Paul Ifill, famous Millwall wingers.”

Wallace has praised goalkeepers Bart Bialkowski and George Long for helping hone his penalty technique on the training ground.

“I’ll ask Bart if he looked at my last five or six penalties where he thinks I would go.

“There is quite a lot behind it these days – like where the keeper normally dives. I mix it up with my penalties and probably practise three or four with Bart and Longy.

“As you saw the other week it can be the difference.

“I’ll look at a keeper’s last 15 penalties and see where he dived and if he has a favourite side. Then I’d make my decision during the week where I’m going to go.

“But that can change. I always think about the free-kick I scored against Cardiff a couple of years ago. Literally until my last step I was going to cross it and then I thought ‘let’s just hit it’. And it went in.

“Bart studies takers to the point where when he sees the run-up of the player he knows they have tells about where they’re going to go.

“Bart has saved something like four out of seven. He’s brilliant at it. He studies it with LT [Lee Turner] the goalkeeping coach – even down to how many steps they are taking.

“If I score past Bart in training it gives me a lot of confidence because there can’t be many better out there at saving them.

“Coming on as a sub isn’t something I’ve done often but mentally I felt really fresh [against Bristol City], especially off the back of a rest.

“Benik was a little unlucky – he wanted to take it [the penalty].”

Wallace has played his part in Millwall heading into the last two international breaks in upbeat mood.

The heat was firmly on when Wallace was standing over the ball and surveying his options in the Blackpool match. He conjured up the perfect pace and trajectory to whip it beyond Chris Maxwell.

“I like pressure,” said Wallace. “I was 18 and playing every week at Portsmouth when they were going through administration in League Two. I very quickly got used to pressure and I missed it last season [with no fans in the stadium]. I like it when there is that build-up, who is going to be the one to step up? I thrive off that.

“It was a big moment for us and also Coops, to get up and score a header like that in those conditions.

“I’m a big believer that there have been four or five people at Millwall who have been a constant in the last four or five years – people like Bart and Coops – who you can rely on week in and week out.

“The week before Coops had the disappointment of the Cardiff game where he probably felt he didn’t have his best moment against Aden Flint, when he loses a header [for one of their goals]. But you see the strength of character that Coops has to make the difference a week later.”

Millwall are unbeaten in seven heading into tomorrow’s home encounter with Luton Town.

“It’s very, very tight in the table,” said Wallace. “The last two games it has been a penalty decision and a set-play that has made the difference for us. That’s pretty much the Championship, isn’t it? We’re probably never going to be a team that is going to lose 4-0 or win 4-0.

“A good week can transform things and a bad week can leave you looking over your shoulder.”