Lions roar once more to delight boss Neil

A DETERMINED performance saw Millwall deservedly pick up their first league win since August to lift themselves away from the bottom four.

Goals from Lee Gregory, Callum Butcher and Steve Morison handed the Lions the win, with Marc Richards grabbing the hosts’.

Manager Neil Harris said: “I’m delighted for us today, that was a really professional performance on the back of what had been a slight blip of form.

“I thought we did the dirty stuff better today, I’m pleased for every single one of my players because they’ve worked so hard over the last fortnight and it’s paid off with a win today.

“We’ve been letting goals in and not winning games recently but today we’ve won it as a team, I could never accuse my team of a lack of desire.”

The game got off to a fiery start after Northampton’s Jak McCourt was shown a yellow card after only 12 seconds for a crunching tackle on Fred Onyedinma and Millwall almost bagged a sensational early opener after Steve Morison struck a dipping 40-yard lob over Adam Smith and onto the roof of the net.

The visitors took the lead on 32 minutes after Shaun Williams’ long pass found Gregory unmarked and he calmly slotted the ball home to send Millwall in at half-time 1-0 up.

Five minutes into the second half Paddy McCourt almost levelled after his well-hit 30-yarder was tipped onto the crossbar.

McCourt’s effort was quickly forgotten after he received a second yellow card for an unnecessary lunging tackle.

The host’s woes continued after a defensive error allowed Callum Butcher to get one-onone with the keeper, easily doubling Millwall’s lead.

However, Northampton managed to pull one back after Sam Hoskins’ cross was headed home by Richards.

Any chance of a late fightback was extinguished by Morison whose fantastic lob put the game out of sight at 3-1.

A deflated Rob Page said after the game: “I’m very disappointed in the result, that wasn’t like us, we didn’t have the impact on the game like normal.

“All three goals we conceded were embarrassing; they didn’t have to work too hard to score any of them and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

“It wasn’t good enough defensively, it’s annoying and frustrating, individual errors have cost us and we need to learn from our mistakes.”