NEIL Harris praised “brilliant” Paul Robinson as he watched his former team-mate help shut out Millwall at The Den on Tuesday evening.
Robinson was imperious in the centre of defence for AFC Wimbledon – who had Jon Meades sent off for a second booking in the 74th minute – as Millwall failed to score for just the second time at home in the league this season.
Robinson, 34, who made over 350 appearances for the Lions, was up against Harry Smith, making just his third Football League start.
He cleared a dangerous low cross from Shane Ferguson in the first half and helped steer his side to a point after Meades had departed with 16 minutes left.
“He was brilliant,” Harris said. “In the first half he made a block on the goal line and he headed one from under the crossbar. I thought that’s just him, that’s his quality.
“He’ll be the first person delighted with a clean sheet and a point back at The Den. I thought Harry Smith did very well against him tonight, he’s one of the most aggressive centre-halves he’ll come up against in his career.
“And he’s one of the best at this level. But Harry won the majority of his headers and led the line really well.”
Without Steve Morison and Lee Gregory, Millwall failed to score for the second successive game despite late chances falling to Smith and substitute Fred Onyedinma, who was involved in Meades’ second yellow card.
And Harris felt his side created enough opportunities to punish the Dons.
He said: “Dan, our video analyst, just showed me brief stats because I thought we got into really good areas but maybe lacked a little bit of quality.
“We put 20 crosses into the box which I think is the second highest this season after Bristol Rovers in the last home game.
“We’ve had 13 efforts on goal and eight on target which is more than I thought. When you look at that you say we should be more dangerous than what we were. Fred probably had the best chance after that knockdown towards the end.
“I think we could have gambled a bit more, put a few more crosses into the box considering the number of crosses we had.
“That’s my little moan about my players but having said that I thought we stood really strong against a battling, aggressive Wimbledon side and I was delighted with the clean sheet.
“That was my gripe on Saturday at Bolton in a game of very few chances, we gifted them goals. If anything we should have kept a clean sheet. So I’m delighted with my players for that but on reflection it’s a game we could have won.”