‘We want to do it as a reward for the fans’ – Jake Cooper eyes win at Blackburn after Millwall’s supporters had wasted journey

Jake Cooper wants to repay the Millwall fans being forced to travel back up to Blackburn Rovers for a second time after the initial  fixture was postponed just 45 minutes before kick off.

The Lions were due to play at Ewood Park in the middle of last month but the referee ruled it could not go ahead due to an unplayable pitch.

Millwall were unhappy that undersoil heating was not turned on and there was also a feeling that groundstaff could have cleared the playing surface more quickly.

The South London club are going in search of a sixth straight win and have the chance to go level on points with Middlesbrough, who occupy the last play-off place.

Cooper, who headed their winner in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Reading, said: “For the fans definitely [extra motivation for the Blackburn game], we owe the fans a good performance, especially the ones that come up again. That’s what we’ll be looking to do, put on a performance for all of them who travelled all that way.

“We’ve got a really strong group in the dressing room and we’re going to keep driving that mentality within the group to keep pushing in that direction [the play-offs].”

Cooper has headed back-to-back winners against Sheffield United and Reading.

“I always like to think I’m a threat, especially from set-pieces,” he said. “But I’ve scored some big goals now this season and long may that continue.

“I’ve got used to it [the captaincy]. I’ve done it a number of times this season with Hutchy [Shaun Hutchinson] missing games and Pearcey [Alex Pearce] not being involved. It’s been good and it’s something I’ve always looked to have achieved.”

“It was just about holding on and seeing the result through, if we could catch them on the counter again but maybe we weren’t so good going forward.

“The performance today and last Saturday was maybe not so good, we need to look at that, but confidence is as high as a kite right now.

“It’s all a blur [when I scored], I couldn’t even tell you how I got to hearing the ball, it was just natural. It’s just a natural way I like to attack the ball.

“As soon as I made contact I knew it was a goal, that was me off celebrating after that.

“We knew with the players we’ve got missing that it would probably be a counter-attack or a set-play we score from, they are our strengths.

“The determination in this team at the moment is really high and again, we proved that today.

“When you look at where we’ve come from, five games ago we were sat 14th-15th in the table and struggling. We’ve just gone back to what we’re good at, really worked hard and it’s got us results. We’ve got to keep looking at it that way.”

The 27-year-old had the job of marking Reading striker Lucas Joao on Saturday, with the centre-back coming out on top with aerial duels won.

Cooper told the South London Press: “He’s [Lucas Joao] a big strong boy, I have to let him have that and then balls into his body he’s going to hold up the ball well.

“He’s good with his feet, he had one moment around the box, which we had to be wary of but we did well, dealt with it well.

“We closed the spaces for their good attacking players that we knew we had to do and we limited them to a few chances, so that was a positive.

“It was a difficult game, we saw how Reading set up early against us. Cutting off the spaces, sitting in and making it difficult for us.”