BARTOSZ Bialkowski has no intention of allowing George Long a glimpse of his No.1 jersey and says he wants to play as long as possible as he heads into his mid-30s.
Bialkowski, 34, agreed a contract extension until 2023 last week and is in his third season as Millwall’s first-choice goalkeeper.
The former Southampton and Ipswich ex-Poland international hasn’t missed a minute of Championship action since he replaced Frank Fielding three minutes before half-time in the opening game of the 2019-20 season.
Long, who joined after Fielding left in the summer, wasn’t shy in stating his ambition is to play at the top level. Long is seven years younger than Bialkowski and made his debut in the 2-1 win over Portsmouth in the second round of the EFL Cup.
Bialkowski kept the joint-highest number of league clean sheets in his first season (16) and joint-third highest in 2020-21 (17).
“It’s always nice to have [the faith of the manager] but I think I’ve showed it on the pitch,” Bialkowski said. “I deserve that No.1 spot.
“Listen, when you’re enjoying your football it’s totally different. You’re playing with confidence and it’s that simple, really.
“[Long] is a great goalie, great lad. He’s competitive and he’s always working. We train hard. He’s pushing. Every single player wants to play and he’s no different.
“But I’m not just going to let him do that. I’m going to keep improving, keep working hard so I can keep my spot.
“LT [Lee Turner], the goalie coach, is working us very hard during the week. That’s all you can do, keep trying to improve all the time.
“I want to play as long as I can. I’m fit and healthy, I’m looking after myself I’d like to think very well.
“I’m very happy here, I’m enjoying my football. It was really a no-brainer for me [to sign an extension]. As soon as I heard the club wanted to extend my contract I didn’t have to think about it, to be honest.
“I said I was happy to stay, happy to extend my deal and I’m looking forward to the future.
“You always want to improve. My aim is to keep improving every single day. Obviously it would be nice to beat my clean-sheet record, but it’s not always down to me. It’s always down to every single one of us.
“Defensively in the last two seasons we’ve been very solid. The credit has to go to every single one of us, not only to me.
“As much as I would like to keep clean sheets every single game I know it’s not going to happen. Our aim is to go into the games determined not to concede goals.”
Bialkowski believes boss Gary Rowett has strengthened the squad this summer. George Saville re-joined from Middlesbrough, and Benik Afobe scored the first goal of his loan spell from Stoke in the 2-1 defeat to Fulham on Tuesday evening.
Bialkowski has also been impressed with another new recruit in front of him, Northern Ireland international Daniel Ballard on loan from Arsenal.
Bialkowski said: “He’s unbelievable. He’s such a young lad but he played very well last season for Blackpool, he won promotion.
“You can see he’s playing with confidence, he’s such a talented boy. He’s working hard as well, he’s got the mindset to push forward and he wants to achieve big things. I’m sure he’s going to do that.
“We’re lucky we got him because he’s going to be a big player for us. He’s probably going to be a big player for a Premier League club, Arsenal or wherever.
“What the gaffer has done this season is added quality into the team. Everyone can see that. They’re quality players.
“Sav is brilliant on the ball. Benik is a great finisher, he just needs balls into the box and he’s going to take them. He’s showing that on the training pitch.
“We’ve got quality, we’ve added quality so we should be positive about the future.
“We’ve had spells during games when we’ve shown we can play very well. Obviously you’re not going to play well for the full 90 minutes, other teams are going to have spells.
“We just need to take our chances, maybe be more clinical and positive. Scottie [Malone] and Jed [Wallace] showed us on Saturday that they’re brilliant. They’re positive-minded, they want to go forward, put the balls into the box and create chances.”
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