By Shane McDermott
JAKE Cooper believes Millwall’s decision to bring Neil Harris back to the club has been a masterstroke.
Harris, who previously played at The Den for close to a decade across two spells and managed the club for four years between 2015 and 2019, replaced Joe Edwards in mid-February after a sorry run of one point from a possible 24.
The Lions picked up three wins and a draw in Harris’ first four games as results drastically improved.
And they got back to winning ways with a timely victory over title-chasing Leicester City on Tuesday night, which fired them four points clear of the dreaded drop zone with four games remaining.
It has been a funny old journey back to the club, and the Championship, for the 46-year-old head coach who started the season with League Two Gillingham and then moved to third-tier Cambridge.
And defender Cooper told SportsBoom.com: “It was great to see him again. I obviously spent a lot of time with Neil in the past when he was at Millwall previously.
“He’s a great person. It was nice to see a familiar face again for sure.
“The messaging has been about going back to basics and simplifying our game. There’s been a lot of hard work and graft that has gone into the little things.
“There’s been a lot about getting clean sheets back and having that to build on. He’s been banging on about the home form and getting that home form back and getting the crowd at The Den back behind us. Those have been his key messages.
“There’s probably no one that has experienced the passion of The Den more or knows the fan base better than what he does.
“He’s got a great relationship with the fans and it was a perfect appointment in that sense.
“He settled us down and told us how to get the fans on side. We knew already, but he installed that belief again and said the fans will be there supporting us because we’re a good side.
“The fans have been great for us recently.”
Cooper has been at the club since 2017 and experienced the heartache of their string of play-off near misses in recent years.
But it’s a battle down the other end of the table, to maintain their proud Championship status, that is on the agenda during the run-in this time around.
“We’ve managed to pull ourselves a little bit away from danger,” added Cooper.
“That run of three wins in four games when the gaffer first came back in was a great return for us.
“I’ve not experienced a relegation before and it’s not something I’d ever want to experience.
“It’s part of football, but every club is trying to avoid that and that’s the boat we’re in at the moment.
“If you get sucked in that battle at the bottom then it’s something you’ve got to figure out.
“It’s about the last few games and it’s all about the results and how many points we can get out of them.
“It’s crazy how many teams are involved down there. The swing of results over the last few weeks has been quite big and I’m sure it will do summersaults again.
“It’s going to be tight to the wire I’m sure. It’s about who can put that form together and show some consistency now at this latter stage of the season when it really matters. We’re hopeful we’ve got that in this squad.
“Every year there are clubs fighting for nothing come the end of the season and it would be nice to have that!
“We don’t want to be involved in the relegation battle right at the end. The last few years we’ve been fighting to get into that top six and not managed to.
“If we can pick up the points early and get things done then that’s the perfect scenario, but we’re prepared and ready for it if it goes down to the wire as well.
“We’re going to have to fight and give everything we can.”
