Millwall manager Neil Harris was on the offensive last night after his club were knocked out of the League Cup, but it’s not a stance that fans seem to appreciate.
The struggling Lions were beaten by London rivals Leyton Orient in one of the shocks of the night, and Harris immediately called out a number of his players. A heavily rotated Millwall side struggled to challenge opposition goalkeeper Zach Hemming, as Harris’ team, still winless in the second tier, went scoreless for the second game in a row.
Dan Agyei’s 14th-minute goal turned out to be the only shot on target from either team, both of which are grappling with poor early-season form.
Harris made eight changes to his starting lineup from the Lions’ 0-0 Championship draw against Hull City on Saturday. Among those was Daniel Kelly, making a debut. However, after the lacklustre in the first half, Kelly and George Honeyman were substituted, and Casper De Norre and Romain Esse came on. However, the substitutions did little to shift the momentum of the match, and the Lions exited the arena with little more than a whimper.
“I’ve given people an opportunity and there is a clamour from the fans to play some players, and today people have had their opportunity and they didn’t take it,” said a furious Harris after the game.
“I don’t think there’ll be many people knocking on my door on Friday once I’ve named my team for Saturday.”
One of the players seemingly in the manager’s crosshairs is Aidomo Emakhu, the 20-year-old Irish striker signed from Shamrock Rovers. He has many fans’ support, but not the manager, who believes his side should have scored more in the league.
“We created more clear-cut chances than anyone in the first three league games,” Harris added. “I thought we were poor tonight with the ball, we didn’t create enough chances.
“We’ve had three really good league performances. We’ve only got one point, that’s fact. But we’ve deserved five or seven.”
Fans don’t seem to agree with Harris, who is seemingly running out of credit with the fanbase that used to sing his name. Last season, the 47-year-old was sacked by League Two side Gillingham and appointed as boss of Cambridge, but he left there after two months to take up the role at Millwall. He’s a playing legend with the Lions, but as these fans on X seem to suggest, that situation didn’t carry over to his second management spell.
They’re eager to see change, fearing the worst against Sheffield Wednesday this weekend, who themselves scored five in the cup last night.
Now he’s signing a Cardiff reserve that can’t even get into their Squad .
Tactically naive , poor team selection , poor use of subs . Poor at attracting top players .
Cardiff , Cambridge & Gillingham , not a great CV ?
I’m not sure if his level is even Div2.
He got lucky last…— Stephen (@Stevecolemill) August 28, 2024
Basically please come Saturday and watch some more prehistoric tactics, hoof ball to a small striker, everyone behind the ball all the time and just playing for long throws and free kicks and corners. And if we lose I’ll just blame the players again.
— Mark Best (@BestMbest80) August 28, 2024
Sick of this rubbish, this squad is League One level and so, so poor 🤬🤬🤬
— Stocky (@steven_stock) August 27, 2024
Worst performance I’ve ever seen. Harris needs to drop the pride and leave absolutely embarrassing from top to bottom.
— RT (@R0NT01) August 27, 2024
POXY
Listen Orient looked decent, best team won, but we played like a bunch of Raspberry’s!
No direction, no game plan, FA.Making all these unnecessary changes, for THIS!
SORT IT OUT
— Big Paul (@littlepaul1885) August 27, 2024
Huge mistake keeping Harris on. Tough season ahead.
— RB (@SE163LN_) August 27, 2024
Genuinely think this team is 6/7 players short of being able to compete. Sunday league managers wouldn’t accept a performance like that
— A_Hughes-Martin (@AlfieHM) August 27, 2024
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