Jake Cooper: Millwall landing Championship play-off spot would be top achievement in my career

Jake Cooper reckons it would be the greatest achievement of his career if Millwall manage to clinch a top-six place at title-chasing Burnley tomorrow.

The Lions must win at Turf Moor and they will be in the Championship play-offs for the first time since 2002 if either Coventry City or Bristol City, fifth and sixth respectively, are defeated on the final round of fixtures.

Burnley, already assured of automatic promotion, can still win the title. They are level on points with leaders Leeds United but a far inferior goal difference.

It is a clash of the top two form clubs in the division with only the Clarets (26) taking more points than Millwall (21) in the last 10 matches. The Clarets will not be able to field Zian Flemming, who will make a permanent switch from SE16 this summer.

Centre-back Cooper has been at Millwall since January 2017 and won the League One play-offs in the same season.

Asked about what a play-off finish would mean this time around, the 30-year-old centre-back told the South London Press: “It would mean a great deal.

“It would be great to have that on my Millwall CV, with the amount of time I’ve been here.

“It would be the best achievement in my career. I have been here so many years and we haven’t achieved that – it would be the highest we have finished.

“It’s something we’re looking to do. It’s an exciting game. The stakes are there to play for and we probably thought we wouldn’t be in this position a few months ago.”

Hull won 1-0 at Millwall thanks to a Jake Cooper own goal in one of Saturday’s early kick-offs.

It was just the response the Tigers needed after being dumped out of the FA Cup by League Two Doncaster last Sunday as they gave their survival hopes a real boost.

Millwall were dealt the blow of losing the promising Romain Esse to south London rivals Crystal Palace earlier on Saturday and the mood was hardly lifted by a poor display in which they hardly threatened.

Mihailo Ivanovic had the first opening of the game in the third minute when his header from Joe Bryan’s free-kick was held by Hull goalkeeper Carl Rushworth low to his left.

The visitors then had a big opportunity to take the lead after nine minutes when Joao Pedro’s pass put Abu Kamara through on goal, but Millwall goalkeeper Lukas Jensen rushed out to make a good save.

Despite going down under Alfie Jones’ challenge, Duncan Watmore created an opening for the Lions for George Honeyman, playing against his former club, which he bent over the bar.

Hull then suffered the blow of losing captain Lewie Coyle to injury after 24 minutes, with Cody Drameh being brought on in his place.

Drameh’s first involvement was to put in a peach of a low ball into the six-yard box that was begging to be attacked but, unfortunately for the Tigers, Pedro was on his heels and the chance was gone.

The remainder of the first half became very scrappy, however, with both teams either too tentative in getting the ball forward or too wasteful with possession.

Japhet Tanganga sent a diving header from Honeyman’s free-kick wide two minutes after the restart, but neither the tempo or flow of the game really improved in the early stages of the second half.

The game badly needed a breakthrough and Millwall captain Cooper inadvertently provided one in the 58th minute when he turned Regan Slater’s low cross into his own net to put Hull ahead.

The Tigers now had a spring in their step and Slater had a chance to double their lead after receiving the ball from debutant Joe Gelhardt but shot wide from just outside the box.

A Millwall side that had scored just four goals in their previous eight league games barely mustered a response as attacking moves repeatedly broke down cheaply in the final third.

The mood among the home support only darkened the longer the match went on and the Lions were roundly booed off the pitch at the final whistle while the away end heartily celebrated a vital three points.

The managers

Millwall’s Alex Neil:

“Ultimately the game got decided on a cross that hit one of our lads’ heels and deflects in at the front post, and it ends up being the winning goal.

“From that perspective, it’s really, really frustrating because if you get done with a bit of quality or if you get done by them performing better and creating numerous opportunities to comfortably win the game, you go ‘OK, we need to be better.’

“But it was a scrappy game decided on an unfortunate moment for us, in my opinion.

“We’re stretched at the top end of the pitch – I think anybody can see that.

“We’ve just sold Romain for a lot of money, we’ve got Femi [Azeez] who’s currently not available for us just now.

“We’ve got Calum Scanlon who’s literally trained for one week, and he’s a left-back and I’ve got him playing left wing, so it’s not easy.”

Hull’s Ruben Selles:

“I think coming here and getting the three points, and getting a good result, is always difficult and I think the result was good, the performance was good and we’re happy.

“We’re doing it in the way we want to do it.

“We’re building some things like trying to control the game, trying to be intense, trying to be aggressive, trying to keep the [defensive] line high, away from our goal, so I think we are going in the correct direction.

“I think we cannot ask for more today.

“I think the feeling with them was the atmosphere our fans created was amazing today, in a place like this where you can really feel the football environment.

“From the very beginning, they were helping with that, supporting us home and away, and today I hoped they enjoyed it because the support was massive and we always feel it when they are there.”