NEIL Harris said there was “no problem” between him and Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa after late flashpoints involving both benches in their 1-1 Championship draw at The Den.
Jed Wallace gave Millwall the lead 10 minutes into the second half, but Jack Harrison earned his side a point when he fired home a low shot from outside the area with a minute left.
Just before Leeds’ equaliser, Bielsa entered Millwall’s technical area seeming to try to angrily make a point to Lions assistant boss Dave Livermore.
And after Harrison scored, several members of Leeds’ coaching staff and substitutes’ bench celebrated in the direction of their opposite numbers.
After the final whistle Harris made his way towards the Leeds dugout and had to be ushered away by Livermore and Lions coach Adam Barrett.
“It’s just football, isn’t it?” Harris said when asked about the incidents later. “We should have given the ball back quicker in our dugout, but you don’t because there are two minutes to go and you’re 1-0 up at home.
“They got excited when they scored their goal. I spoke to Marcelo downstairs, and there’s no problem whatsoever.”
Ben Amos, starting in goal again with Jordan Archer not on the bench, made excellent saves from Tyler Roberts and Luke Ayling.
The Lions could have won it late on, but substitute Tom Elliott’s header came back off the post and Leeds survived several scares in their box in injury-time.
Harris continued: “It was a performance I knew that was coming from the group’s attitude in the last two weeks. It’s been brilliant.
“We lost three games in a 10-day period and at this club that’s almost like a disaster, the end of the world. That’s how far we’ve come. I take it as a compliment, that when we lose three games in the Championship people see it as a failure.
“That’s when you know you’ve got a good team and good players, because there’s expectation levels.
“The training has been brilliant, there was a real focus today. I knew I was going to get that performance.
“It was a game with not a huge amount of chances. I thought we matched Leeds throughout the 90 minutes.
“When you’re playing against top sides, and Leeds are a top side, they’re going to create the odd moment of brilliance. They had a couple of chances through clever play, or slight errors by us I’ll look at. The goalkeeper made a couple of saves.
“We scored a perfectly good goal, had other chances, and by the end we should have won the game.
“Am I sitting here and bemoaning only getting a point? No. I could be negative after conceding a last-minute goal, which is disappointing from us, but I’d rather concentrate on us being pleased with a point.
“I’m disappointed for my players that they didn’t get three points today. Yes, I feel sorry for myself and my staff and the fans, but ultimately I wanted my players to get three points because they deserved it.”
Meanwhile, Bielsa explained how difficult it was for his side to play against Millwall, and also spoke about the dramatic end to the game and the angry scenes involving the benches.
“”I take responsibility for this, because I am in football longer than my colleague [Harris],” he said.
“Sometimes we behave in a way and then lament it. I have the obligation not to behave like this. When you get older you should moderate your behaviour. That’s why I apologise.
“The main arguments [tactics] of the opponent are long throws, corners and long balls, and they are all legitimate ones. We needed to do more complicated things.
“It was hard for us to play well. It was hard to give the ball to [Samuel] Saiz. He is our most creative player.
“Usually balls arrive in your box with pace, but the ball was going up and down. We had prepared for that but couldn’t neutralise it.”
Image: Millwall FC