Neil Harris hopes Millwall’s “heart” on his return can be the catalyst to keep them in the Sky Bet Championship after masterminding a 2-1 victory over Southampton.
Club legend Harris answered the Lions’ SOS after Joe Edwards was sacked this week to begin a fourth stint at the south-east London club.
He was rewarded with Tottenham loanee Japhet Tanganga bagging his first professional goal for the club and Zian Flemming stroking in from the penalty spot.
Harris was serenaded with chants of “Super Neil Harris” throughout and said: “Thank you to the fan-base, not just for my welcome that they gave me on the touchline but also for supporting my players like that.
“That’s what we need between now and the end of the season.
“The fans needed that performance and that result – in unison that is a great result for this club.
“Millwall teams always have to find a way, they’ve always had to find a way.
“Some of the performances were some of the best performances of the season for some individuals.
“You don’t have to be the best player in the pitch to be appreciated by the fans at the Den. You have to epitomise what a Millwall fan would do if they were on the pitch.
“That was me, I was never the best player on the pitch but I always worked harder than everyone else on it.
“That’s the message I have put in and then build a way around the ball with that. When the chips are down it is about heart, and we had that in abundance today.”
Tanganga bravely nodded in George Saville’s long floated free-kick in the fifth minute to give the Lions a shock lead.
Che Adams hit back for Saints when he glanced Stuart Armstrong’s delightful delivery into the box under the goalkeeper.
But after Jan Bednarek’s handball just before half time, Flemming sent Gavin Bazunu the wrong way to secure Millwall’s first win since New Year’s Day.
Harris said he could have praised each of his players but picked out Tanganga’s performance in both boxes for a special mention.
He said: “If he wants to be a Millwall centre-half he has to be brave at both ends of the pitch.
“I thought we defended our box superbly today and Japhet was outstanding, absolutely excellent.”
Southampton have now lost three of their last four matches to bring their club-record 25-game unbeaten run to a shuddering stop.
Angry Russell Martin, who saw his side fall five points behind second-placed Leeds, said: “We’ll be fine [in the promotion race].
“We’ve got eight weeks left of the season and still have the chance to be incredibly exciting and get rewarded but like we did before we have to stand up and be counted now.
“We will work hard to find a way through and make sure this run doesn’t last too long.
“We concede two crap goals. That’s it today.
“We had three massive chances and should score. It’s not normal to create that many big chances against a team in a low block.
“We should score but don’t. It’s nothing to do with tactics. If people want to talk about all that stuff, it’s not that. We conceded two rubbish goals.
“How we don’t deal with the free-kick, I don’t know. Maybe there is an offside, I haven’t seen it but the feeling from the analysts is that there is. It’s a floated cross and it loops into our goal.
“For the second goal, we don’t clear it twice and it ends up across our box for a penalty. That is the story of the game, nothing else – not tactics.”
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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