TOM Bradshaw said he’s “felt at home” at Millwall since “day one” after his contract was extended.
The striker, 31, had an appearance-based clause in his deal triggered that means he will continue his career at The Den for at least another season. He follows George Saville and Ryan Leonard in having his contract extended over the last week.
Bradshaw has been at Millwall since 2018 after initially signing on loan from Barnsley. He then joined permanently in January 2019 for what was at the time a club record deal.
He has made 195 appearances for the club.
Speaking exclusively to NewsAtDen, Bradshaw said: “I’ve loved my time at Millwall. I think this is my sixth season now and it’s a club where I’ve felt at home since day one and it’s quite rare in football to stay at a club for this amount of time.
“I’m over the moon that my contract has been extended and it’s great news for myself and my family.”
While this season has been disrupted by injuries, the Welshman enjoyed his best spell in a Lions shirt during the previous 2022-23 campaign where he hit sixteen goals as Millwall narrowly missed out on the playoffs.
Despite the struggles of this season, Bradshaw insists he still has promotion the Premier League on his mind.
He said: “The ultimate ambition for everyone at the club is promotion. It’s been a real up-and-down season and there’s been a lot of change which is difficult for any football club.
“But we showed with how close we got last year that we’re capable and I think everyone at the club is striving for that ambition of getting to the play-offs and potentially promotion.
“But at the moment we’re very focused on where we are and we’re trying to stay in the league with the view of hopefully kicking on next year.”
Bradshaw has made 31 league appearances and nineteen Championship starts during a season that has seen him deal with niggling injuries throughout. But he has come off the bench in the last two games against Cardiff City and Leicester City and is delighted to be back involved in the thick of the action.
He said: “It’s been frustrating. I haven’t necessarily had any big injuries but they’ve come at very frustrating times like off the back of scoring three goals [in December] I picked up a two or three weeker. And before that I had another two or three weeker. And the latest one I had a tear in my soleus that went into my Achilles.
“It was a slightly more worrying one and initially we thought my season might have been finished but luckily we had good results with the specialist which said it’s not what we first thought. Six weeks is still a very frustratingly long time to be sat on the sidelines but to be back involved in the back end of the season is something I’m really happy with and helping the lads get back over the line.”
Burnley loanee Michael Obafemi has been picking up form in recent games leaving Bradshaw with a battle on his hands to get back in the team. But the Welshman said he is more concerned with the team effort at the moment.
He said: “Mike’s done a really good job the last three or four games. Great finish on Saturday and when we’re in a position that we’re in, we all have to clump together. And whoever’s scoring the goals or making the last ditch tackles, we all need to do it as one. Because ultimately the important thing is us staying up.
“I’m pushing to help the lads whether that’s starting or off the bench.”