‘We missed the fans during the pandemic’ – Millwall assistant boss reckons Den crowd were big help in 1-0 win over Reading

Adam Barrett felt that the atmosphere inside the Den on Tuesday night helped inspire Millwall to their 1-0 win over Reading.

Benik Afobe struck in the final third of the match to clinch the points for the Lions, who are just outside the play-off spots on goal difference alone.

Millwall were booed off by the fans after a poor first half performance. But the Lions were reinvigorated after the break – and spurred on by a raucous atmosphere that was jointly instigated by some questionable refereeing decisions from Gavin Ward and some much-improved attacking impetus.

“We know at home this can be a really tough place to come,” said Barrett. “We missed not having the supporters here through covid. They make it a hostile atmosphere and to get back-to-back wins at home and get that energy back, I think the second half there was a fantastic atmosphere in the place and you could really sense it.

“So we want to build on that and continue that little run, but we’ve got to make sure we’re right for Saturday, because if you’re not, then we don’t pick up points in this division.”

After garnering a reputation as the division’s draw specialists, Millwall have now gone seven games without a draw in the league. And Barrett admitted that there was an element of relief that the Lions had managed to find that little bit of quality to turn those results into wins over the past month or so.

“We know we’ve drawn a lot and that’s frustrating,” added the Lions assistant boss. “We’ve done a lot of work and we’ve spoken about it an awful lot and worked on the training pitch.

“We’ve been a real hard team to beat – a very difficult Championship side to come up against. It’s just turning those key moments in games with the little bit of quality that can turn draws into wins. Thankfully, over the recent period we’ve managed to do that and it’s so important. But I think the pleasing thing is that we’re always in games, it’s very rarely that we’re out of a game.

“It’s just nice over the last month or so that we’re turning those draws into wins which is a lot more pleasing.”