Harris so chuffed for silver fox
MILLWALL boss Neil Harris told Steve Morison “you’re never too old or too grey to get praise from your manager” after the silver-haired striker downed Queens Park Rangers with his first goal of the campaign.
Harris was no stranger to providing euphoric moments for the Lions faithful with his own goalscoring exploits, so the Millwall manager had little trouble understanding the joy Morison felt in finally opening his account for the season.
The 34-year-old headed home the only goal of the game to help the Lions win an emotionallycharged London derby and Harris made no apologies for singling out the striker after he moved level with Derek Possee as Millwall’s joint-third all-time scorer with 87 goals.
“His performances have been outstanding. His leadership quality is outstanding,” said the Lions manager. “I praised him in front of the players and sometimes he gets embarrassed – he always has done over the years.
“I said to him, ‘It’s been a long time coming and those goalposts don’t move’, but his performances have warranted his starting place, and he showed it.
“If I was being critical, that’s the worst we’ve played in a long time. We played 10 times better than that at Derby (on December 23) and got beat 3-0.
“If we want to keep building, we’ve got to be better than that.”
Morison settled a fraught Friday night at the Den, with the Millwall faithful continually berating former manager Ian Holloway, returning to his old club for the first time since he was sacked as Lions boss in March 2015.
The Rangers chief dismissed the verbal abuse he received throughout, saying: “I’m doing my job, as I’ve always done it, and that’s it.”
Holloway did admit to a tinge of jealousy watching Lions frontmen Morison and Lee Gregory in action, with his forwards Idrissa Sylla and Bright OsayiSamuel having little impact on proceedings.
“You’ve got to score and when you get in crossing positions, you’ve got to give your centreforwards a chance,” he said. “I felt there was a cohesion between their forwards because they’ve been working well with each other for the last few years, albeit that they went down and came back up again.
“You need to build an understanding and at the minute our forwards aren’t quite getting that.”
Morison’s champagne moment arrived in the 55th minute when he headed home Jed Wallace’s succulent delivery at the far post, making amends for losing his footing in the first period when he fluffed his lines while attempting to steer home a Wallace cross.
Gregory had a shot on the turn blocked by a despairing Grant Hall challenge while winger Wallace slammed an effort into the side-netting when he should have tested Rangers goalie Alex Smithies.
Rangers’ Jake Bidwell headed straight at Lions keeper Jordan Archer after being picked out expertly by Alex Baptiste while, after Morison’s goal, Smithies denied Gregory at point-blank range after he had seized on Nedum Onuoha’s misjudged defensive header.
The visitors’ Matt Smith rose magnificently to meet a Luke Freeman corner late on but his header dropped wide.