“Outstanding” – Millwall boss on display of Lee Gregory in vital win over Aston Villa

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Millwall manager Neil Harris described Lee Gregory as “outstanding” in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Aston Villa.

The forward had scored in his last two games and was a standout performer despite not hitting the back of the net.

Striker partner Tom Elliott struck the winner for Millwall. Shane Ferguson’s first-half goal had cancelled out Tammy Abrahams’ early opener at The Den.

But Gregory was a constant thorn in the side of Villa’s backline.

“He was outstanding,” said Harris. “He has got the bit between his teeth and is in goalscoring form. He led the line brilliantly. We’re playing to Lee Gregory’s strengths at the moment.

“In our poor run of results leading up to this week, we’ve not been at our best and not played to individual strengths. Sometimes you just go back to basics and remind players what they are good at, remind the team what individuals are good at and sometimes you can’t take for granted that players know what they are doing because they have played for me for so long.”

Millwall had conceded costly late goals to Middlesbrough, Leeds, Swansea and Sheffield United this season on home turf.

But Villa rarely looked like finding a leveller after the restart.

“They had one header in the second half and a couple of long-range shots that Ben [Amos] dealt with really well.

“Defensively we looked really solid and organised. Forest only had three shots against us during the week and scored two goals. The law of averages says if a team only gets three shots against you every game then they can’t keep scoring goals. We’ll get back to the clean sheet mentality, which made us so good at the end of last season.

“It’s hard work on the training pitch and discipline. It doesn’t just happen that you don’t give chances up.”