JOE Edwards said he felt relieved after Millwall grabbed a 2-0 win over Queens Park Rangers.
Goals from Tom Bradshaw and Murray Wallace at the end of either half saw the Lions win for the first time since Edwards’ first game in charge in early November against Sheffield Wednesday.
That was also their first victory at The Den since September 20 and lifts them six points clear of QPR, who occupy the last relegation place.
Edwards believe it was Millwall’s “spirit” that got the job done as he praised Aidomo Emakhu, the defence and cast his eye over other aspects of the game, including allegations of one match official and Matija Sarkic being hit by objects during the game.
The Lions boss said: “Definite relief. Relief at the end of the [winless] run, relief at the end when you see that much added time at the end [10 minutes], particularly after the way the last home game went. But as I’ve said I’ve got a lot of belief in this team but when you’re in a difficult run, you do just have to really dig in and I thought that’s what the performance showed today.
“These games when they’re London derbies and you’ve got two teams in a difficult position and both teams reminded of how important the game is and how important the points would be, it creates a bit of tension around the game. You’re not always going to get free-flowing attractive games but I thought we showed enough quality in spells to see signs about where we want to head, but ultimately that was about our spirit today – we were really difficult to play against. QPR played some nice football without ever really hurting us I think. I don’t think Matty Sarkic has made a save really.
“So those basics that we want to be about in terms of the fundamentals, before we talk about playing any football, they need to be there. They were there today, gets us a clean sheet and two consecutive clean sheets mean four points and we have to keep building on it.”
On his side’s defending, Edwards said: “I liked us defensively all across the pitch. What Millwall have been renowned for in the past with the players we’ve had – Ryan Leonard, Jake Cooper, Murray Wallace, Shaun Hutchinson – there’s some strong and experienced players renowned for defending the box well and being a strong set-piece team.
“But today you had a team like QPR who wanted to build up from the back in every opportunity and we really went after them. When you have players like Duncan Watmore and George Honeyman jumping out to go and press, it really puts a stress on the backline as well. And you saw players like Wes Harding and Ryan Leonard jumping into the QPR half to follow players. That’s a big physical demand, it’s a bit of bravery, but I think if you want to put in performances like this at The Den where you get some energy from the crowd and you’re on the front foot, the team has to do it collectively.
“We want more quality in the performance, we want more football, but before we can worry about that we need to make sure, especially with the run we’ve been on, that’s the foundation we want to build on.”
Emakhu, making just his fourth Millwall start, was rewarded the in-house man of the match award over the tannoy system.
On the 20-year-old Irishman, Edwards said: “I thought he did very well today. He’s a young player and I’ve said this in recent weeks about Aidomo and Romain but when you’re a team desperate for points and in a difficult run, I think you have to choose wisely and carefully where you drop the young boys in.
“I’ve seen bits in games recently where we’ve been lacking that spark and pace at the top end of the pitch. I’ve seen bits of Aidomo in training and he played in the under-21 game 10 days ago and scored a hat-trick which was something for me to see.
“I wanted to give him his opportunity and he absolutely took it today. He was a real threat.”
Allan Campbell was left out of the squad for the second match running following Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Stoke City.
On the Luton Town loanee, Edwards said: “I’ve got one injured player in the squad which is Casper [De Norre] which is quite unusual in a busy period like this having more players than can fit in the squad. So I’ve had to make selection decisions and Allan’s been the unfortunate one.
“He’s a great pro, trains well every day. Literally just for the teams I’ve been picking and options I want on the bench to change, it’s just a decision I’ve made for these two games.”
One of the linesman and Millwall keeper Sarkic were both allegedly hit with objects thrown from the crowd in separate incidents.
Edwards said of the assistant referee: “Because it was down on my side, I was well aware of the incident. I haven’t seen anything back and not been given any details so can’t comment too much but obviously if an official has been struck by something from the crowd, that’s something we absolutely don’t condone and we don’t want to see that.
“There was maybe an incident with Matty as well where Matty has had something thrown at him in the game as well. So they’re issues that that the club will need to look into. Without me seeing it or knowing the facts, I’m not going to comment too much but those are things that can’t happen and we don’t condone.”