Neil Harris hailed his Millwall players for displaying the passion he believes the club is built on as they edged past Watford 1-0.
Harris left Cambridge at the end of February to return to The Den for his second spell in charge, and has since steered the Lions to back-to-back wins to keep them above the relegation zone.
Earlier in the week, Harris had spoken about “bringing the Millwall-ness back” to the club, and he felt he saw glimpses of that as Zian Flemming’s early free-kick sealed the three points.
“The football club belongs to the fanbase, so what do they want to see from their team?” said Harris.
“Well, the good teams I’ve played in and the good teams I’ve managed they had heart, they had character, they had passion, desire.
“We could challenge, we could run and we had some ability as well, and that’s all the fans want to see.
“It’s my job to teach this group of players what a Millwall team looks like and today, we had it in so many ways. We didn’t take care of the ball well enough at times, we lacked a little bit of confidence and belief here at The Den that we showed at Southampton with the ball.
“So, that’s something that we’ve got to drip feed into the players, but as in spirit and character and atmosphere in the stadium, that was really, really positive.”
The good feeling was sparked just three minutes in when Flemming’s deflected free-kick found the bottom corner despite Watford goalkeeper Ben Hamer getting hands to it.
Hamer was almost left red-faced for a second time when he allowed a long ball to drift past him, but he breathed a sigh of relief when Duncan Watmore’s effort from a narrow angle hit the post.
The Hornets had more possession in a second half sorely lacking in quality, but a long-range shot over by Ismael Kone and a simple save by Matija Sarkic from Jake Livermore was the best they
could muster.
It meant a fifth defeat in six league games that drew an angry reaction from their supporters after the final whistle and left the visitors in danger of being dragged into the scramble for survival.
Watford boss Valerien Ismael said: “I think throughout the 90 minutes we were not intimidated by the environment and that we were solid.
“We raised the performance from last week, we were unlucky from a deflected free-kick, we were one goal down.
“The only thing we said was just to stand the first 15-20 minutes, the most powerful energy from the game will be there, with the win last week, with the new manager.
“We were prepared for that but, unfortunately, we conceded exactly the goal there, but after that I didn’t think Millwall had the chance to score.
“We were under control, we were focused on ourselves and the performance in this kind of away game was good, but it doesn’t help us a lot at the moment.
“We need to win games, especially in this period of the season, and when you come on a run like this, it makes it difficult for the players.”
Gen Sec Dennis Chung defends JFF’s decision to rehire Busby; labels media allegations as “witch hunt”
Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) General Secretary Dennis Chung has defended the decision to rehire Hubert Busby Jr as the senior Reggae Girlz Head coach, as he pointed out that the country’s governing football body conducted due diligence before moving forward.
Chung’s declaration is in response to an article published by British daily newspaper The Guardian, alleging that the JFF misrepresented Busby’s reinstatement, stating that he was cleared of sexual misconduct allegations by Fifa’s Ethics Committee.
He dismissed the article published on Friday and headlined “Jamaica FA falsely claims women’s team coach was cleared of alleged sexual misconduct” as a “witch hunt” and accused the outlet of distorting facts and overlooking critical details.
This, as the article cast doubt on Busby’s “clearance,” noting that Fifa’s Ethics Committee had closed the preliminary investigation due to a statute of limitations without formally exonerating him.
Busby was reappointed Reggae Girlz Head coach earlier this year, after he was initially suspended by the JFF in 2021, when the allegation of sexual misconduct was brought against him by former player Malloree Enoch.
Enoch alleged that Busby made sexual advances towards her during his time in charge at the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s outfit between 2010 and 2011. Busby denied the allegations.
“Do you think that the JFF, which is the organisation that dismissed Busby when the allegation was made, wouldn’t have done our due diligence? The technical committee received information to say that the investigation has closed and there was nothing based on the information that they had; there was nothing to support what was alleged,” Chung told SportsMax.Tv.
“The letter had stated that Fifa closed the investigation based on the information available. They never referred to any statute of limitations, as the article said. In addition to that, there was an email that Busby forwarded from Fifa stating that he could share it with us for employment purposes,” he added.
Chung clarified that contrary to the statement that he declined multiple requests for interviews and comments, he only received one call from a Guardian journalist, whom he directed to Busby or his legal representatives.
“They said that they reached out to me multiple times; that is not true. They called me once, and I told them, just like any organisation would, that Busby is a staff member and I am not at liberty to discuss his situation or give out any information on him. I told them they should call Busby, as it is he they need to get that information from,” Chung shared.
Since the article surfaced, SportsMax.Tv has been reliably informed that Busby is in the process of filing a defamation lawsuit against someone in the UK. It is not clear if the individual is an employee at the British newspaper.
Chung also rubbished the claim in The Guardian article that several witnesses—including Enoch—were not interviewed by Fifa’s Ethics Committee.
“Does that make sense? If she is the one that made the allegations, do you think Fifa wouldn’t interview her? So what it is, it’s a witch hunt that they are on; it is almost as if they are saying he is still guilty even though the investigation is closed, and that is totally ridiculous,” Chung opined.
Finally, Chung said he is deeply disappointed by the article, which he believes unfairly targets Busby. He also expressed the view that the report adds unnecessary scrutiny to an issue that the JFF and Fifa have already addressed through established protocols.
“I don’t understand what it is about, but there is obviously something behind it. Because the letter never said the investigation was closed based on the statute of limitation, it said the investigation was closed based on the information that they had,” he noted.
“Not because an allegation is made means you’re going to hold it against a man for the rest of his life. Allegations are made against politicians all over, and they are still in positions of authority. You can’t because an allegation is made against a man; hold it against him, and there is nothing to prove that it happened,” Chung ended.
Leeds cut gap at the top of the Championship, while Watford hammer Wednesday
Leeds climbed to second in the Championship, three points behind leaders Sunderland, following a 3-0 victory at home to Plymouth.
Daniel Farke's side dominated the opening 30 minutes of the match before three goals in eight minutes put the game to bed inside the first half.
Dan James opened the scoring on the half-hour mark, firing into the top corner from the edge of the area, before Joel Piroe and Brenden Aaronson made it comfortable.
The result marked Plymouth's fourth game without a victory and they dropped into the bottom three on goal difference due to results elsewhere.
Sunderland were held to a goalless draw away to second-bottom QPR, which opened the door for those below to reduce their lead at the top of the table.
While Dan Neil hit the post for the Black Cats in the first half, it was the hosts who were the better team for long periods.
The game turned in the second half when Jobe Bellingham was sent off after 58 minutes for a poor challenge on Zan Celar, but neither side was able to find a winner.
Elsewhere, Watford moved above West Brom into fifth after they hammered Sheffield Wednesday 6-2 at Hillsborough for their second away win of the season.
The result ended a six-game losing run on the road for the Hornets, who were drawing 1-1 at half-time and saw Vakoun Bayo score four goals inside 30 second-half minutes.
Coventry also made it back-to-back league wins for the first time this season with a 3-0 victory away to Middlesbrough that moved them up to 13th.
The hosts had Hayden Hackney sent off after 22 minutes for two yellow cards, which allowed the Sky Blues to ease to three points. As a result, Michael Carrick's side are three points off the play-off positions in 10th.
Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester City: Cherries end worst record in English football with shock victory
Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson helped give Bournemouth their first-ever league win against Manchester City as they beat the defending champions 2-1 at the Vitality Stadium.
The hosts boosted their giant-killing credentials as they secured a third home victory on the bounce, having beaten Arsenal last time out.
Semenyo got Bournemouth off the mark inside 10 minutes as he turned to fire in at the far post from the centre of the box, before Evanilson doubled the lead after the restart.
Josko Gvardiol gave the visitors a consolation goal with a brilliant header at the back post on 82 minutes but it was too little too late.
While Erling Haaland hit the post and Phil Foden fired just wide in a frantic stoppage time, Bournemouth secured all three points and left Pep Guardiola's man to travel back north empty-handed.
City drop down to second and fail to take advantage of Arsenal’s earlier falter, while Bournemouth move up to eighth.
Data Debrief: Historic victory for Bournemouth ends City's winning streak
This is the host's first-ever win against City in all competitions (D2 L19 before today), while it’s their first league win over the reigning Premier League champions since a 3-0 win over Chelsea in January 2018.
The defeat brings City's 32-game Premier League unbeaten run to an end. They’ve lost successive matches in all competitions for the first time since September 2023.
This is their first defeat when going at least two goals behind in a Premier League game since October 2021 against Crystal Palace, having avoided defeat on their last five previous occasions before today (W3 D2).
Conversely, Bournemouth's fortunes are looking up. They are unbeaten in their last three Premier League games, with those results coming against three of last season's top four (W2 D1).
This is just the fourth time they’ve won three successive home games in the Premier League after October 2016, February 2018 and April 2024.
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