MILLWALL defender Ryan Leonard described keeper Matija Sarkic as the real hero of Saturday’s win at Southampton after his stunning late save denied Adam Armstrong an equaliser.
The Lions went in at the break 2-1 ahead thanks to Japhet Tanganga’s early opener and Zian Flemming’s penalty on the stroke of half-time, which restored their advantage following Che Adams’ equaliser.
Despite being at completely opposite ends of the table, Millwall faced very little threat in the second period from their promotion-chasing hosts.
That was until Sarkic pulled off an excellent stop from Adam Armstrong in the 88th minute, the game defining incident according to Leonard.
He said: “As players, we needed to create a performance today that would show togetherness, show spirit and I think we got that from the first whistle.
“Going 1-0 up early doors was big for us. We conceded a goal, which we can do better.
“We get the penalty and then in the second half we showed yes, we are a defensive unit, but there was a few times on the counter where we probably could have done better.
“A lot of credit goes to Matty, the goalkeeper.
“At the end, making the save he did in the last five minutes was huge.
“I think he deserves all the credit in the world for what he did there and it shows as a keeper that he is an excellent keeper.
“He made a great save and it won us the game really.”
Leonard was signed by returning boss Neil Harris from Sheffield United during the manager’s first spell at the Lions.
That previous experience means the defender is perfectly qualified to assess what are the greatest assets the returning gaffer brings to the role.
“Man management – he is an incredible man manager,” said Leonard.
“He gets the best out of his players.
“I think he really brings the club together on and off the pitch.
“It showed at the end with three thousand fans singing his name at the end of the game.
“He is Millwall. I think everyone would understand that and realise he is Millwall Football Club.
“Obviously it is his first game back and it is a great result for him and the lads.”
Leonard is also convinced Harris will only benefit from the fact there are still so many familiar faces at the club who he knows inside out.
He explained: “There are nine or 10 players from when he was here last time, which is five years ago.
“A lot of the time you don’t see that nowadays – you don’t see five years later and there are still ten players that are in the football club and already kind of know him.
“It was a case of come in for two days, freshen it up and just try and get everyone in a high spirit and breed a bit of confidence.
“When you lose four in a row obviously confidence isn’t going to be great but I think that was probably just his message – to come in and say you are good players.
“Yes, we are in the position we are and yes, we are in the run of form we are, but we are a good set of lads, we’ve got good players and we just need to turn that belief around and turn that spirit around.
“I think that was his biggest message really, to try and turn that around. We started the game off well today and kind of built on from there.”