Millwall head coach Alex Neil believes his players are perfectly placed to force themselves into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs after grinding out a victory over fellow chasers Middlesbrough.
The Lions have gone under the radar in the promotion conversation but their third win in a row surely changes that as they are now just two points behind sixth-placed Coventry, and level with Boro.
Should the Sky Blues drop points at Hull on Monday night, the belief that has been growing around The Den this past week will only get stronger ahead of Millwall’s final four games.
They head into those off the back of a winning goal for Camiel Neghli eight minutes after their record signing came off the bench, although he later had to go off injured.
Neil said: “We’re at a stage of the season where it’s needs must.
“Unfortunately for Camiel, he pulls his hamstring and I feel bad about that because that’s partly my fault because he shouldn’t have been on as early as he came on.
“However, he scores us the winning goal and it’s sort of bittersweet for him and, like I say, it’s disappointing for me because I’ve got a player injured.
“However, it could potentially be this season turns out to be a successful one, it could be the most crucial goal anybody scores for Millwall in a number of years.
“There’s a huge amount of work to do, there’s a huge amount of games left – and if we go and lose the next couple, it could all end.
“But what we have done this week is gives ourselves an opportunity where we can go and battle for the remaining games and see where it takes us.”
Millwall came close to breaking the deadlock four minutes after the restart when Mark Travers kept out George Honeyman’s shot.
The Middlesbrough goalkeeper was then called into action again when he pushed away Macauley Langstaff’s header after Ryan Leonard’s long throw.
Two substitutes combined for the Lions’ winner in the 65th minute as Femi Azeez’s cross was deflected out to Neghli whose shot found the bottom corner.
Boro had a big chance to snatch a point in the second minute of stoppage time when a cross dropped for Marcus Forss, with Lukas Jensen making a crucial save.
Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick said: “They had a spell for about 20 minutes after half-time and they built a bit of momentum.
“Credit to them, they made us defend and they made the most of the time when they were on top.
“I thought first half, largely, we were really good, coming here and controlling things and I thought we caused them a lot of problems in playing through the pitch.
“I thought we created enough space, good opportunities, but we couldn’t make the most of it.
“That spell after half-time, they made the most of it, they took the chance that they got and in the end that was the game.
“We had that chance for Marcus at the end, which was a great save, but we didn’t quite have that little bit of something to open them up even more.”
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