MILLWALL boss Gary Rowett revealed the club would like a permanent deal for Scott Malone – if the defender maintains his good form for the rest of the season.
Malone – who turns 30 on March 25 – scored a superb solo goal in the 4-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday, his fourth of the season in all competitions.
Former Huddersfield and Fulham defender Malone has made 26 appearances this season and has made the left wing-back berth his own with some excellent attacking performances.
Malone joined on a season-long loan from Derby and previously told the News that he would be interested in a full-time return to the Lions.
It’s his second spell at The Den, after he played 71 times and scored five goals for Millwall between May 2012 and January 2015.
Malone is out of contract at Derby this summer.
“Scottie’s done really well and I’m sure that if he continues the form that he’s in then we’ll be desperately wanting to keep him next season,” Rowett said.
“That’s something that like any scenario we’ll look at and plan for. But at the moment he’s our loan player for the season and anything beyond there is subject to those discussions.
“But I’ve been really pleased with him, I think he’s been fabulous for us. He’s fitted in really, really well.”
Millwall confirmed new long-term deals for Danny McNamara, 22, and Tyler Burey, 20, this week, and Rowett is pleased with the direction the club is going.
Rowett said there is a “joined-up plan” linking the academy to the first team.
“We’re in a really nice position where we’ve got a lot of young players coming through,” Rowett said. “It’s testimony to the excellent work the academy are doing, what the under-23s are doing with Nuge [Kevin Nugent] and Robbo [Paul Robinson].
“We want to try to get some of these young players through and into our first team. We have quite a joined-up plan in terms of how that looks.
“What we need to do with that then is make sure those players are tied down so they can fulfil their potential with Millwall rather than other places.
“That’s the plan and it’s nice to get the likes of Danny and Tyler tied down to longer deals and continue that work.”
Meanwhile, Millwall are back in action at Reading this Saturday after a rare seven-day break between games in such a condensed season.
But that didn’t mean staff and players had time to put their feet up. Rowett was keen for continuity with Millwall in some of their best form this season and on a five-game unbeaten run ahead of meeting the surprise promotion challengers.
“We’d normally be off Sunday but we were off Monday as well. We trained on Tuesday as we normally would,” Rowett explained.
“I like to keep it fairly consistent, I don’t want to give them too much time off. A couple of days is a nice little breather from all the games.
“It’s just been nice to have no midweek game, to be honest.”
Image: Millwall FC