COMETH THE HOUR
Sub Harry fired up for Macca
MICK McCARTHY admits he got the desired response from Harry Wilson after he helped earn Cardiff a point.
The Wales star was once again left on the bench and was finally thrust into the action after an hour by new boss McCarthy.
And his star quality shone through as he set up Kieffer Moore’s crucial leveller following Aden Flint’s early own goal.
And McCarthy (right), who has taken two points from his two games in charge, was delighted to see Wilson take out his anger on the Millwall defence.
McCarthy said: “I know Harry has been a starter and there was some surprise that he hasn’t played, but I loved his reaction of coming on and creating that goal.
“He’s a talented lad who can play a number of positions. We were behind in the game and had to change something. Harry went on and created problems from in behind the front two.
“The best I’ve seen him play is wide right cutting onto his left foot, he’s talented and he’s done well here that’s for sure.”
A calamity of errors in the Cardiff defence gifted Millwall the perfect start.
Sean Morrison headed a long ball forward straight into the path of Jed Wallace, who surged down the left flank and attempted to play the ball across the face of goal.
Flint got back to cut out the cross, but managed to divert the ball past Alex Smithies and into his own goal.
Former Bluebird Kenneth Zohore should have struck the killer blow to his old side when Wallace put him one-onone, but dragged his effort wide. Maikel Kieftenbeld cleared a Moore back post header from off the line to keep the Lions in-front before Smithies denied Zohore with a reaction save. McCarthy turned to Wilson and Josh Murphy to add the creative spark from the bench.
And the Liverpool loanee showed his class in the 71st minute when his through pass allowed his international colleague Moore to chip in to level the scores with his 10th of the season.
“It’s the story of our season really,” said Millwall assistant manager Adam Barrett.
“We were relatively solid at the back, hard to break down and we got ourselves into good areas and created some great opportunities, but we’ve not taken them and it’s costing us wins.”