Now saviour Harris is aiming to add sparkle to workmanlike Lions

SINCE Neil Harris was parachuted back into Millwall on a rescue mission in February, only promotion favourites Ipswich have taken more points in the Championship.

- Dan Kilpatrick

Harris has comfortably achieved his objective of keeping the Lions up, and if they finish the season with a fifth straight win tomorrow, over Swansea, they will have averaged exactly two points a game from his 13 matches, easily automatic promotion form over the course of a campaign.

“I don’t know what more I can say about the players,” said Harris. “I can’t praise them highly enough.”

When Harris, 46, returned to the Den for a fourth spell, the club was a point above the drop zone, with confidence at rock bottom following seven defeats in eight games under Joe Edwards, a former Chelsea academy coach who was tasked with transforming the style of play.

Harris’s side beat high-flying Southampton at St Mary’s and Watford in his first two games and their scalps have also included champions Leicester.

“I came in in a precarious, tough position,” said Harris. “We had Southampton away in front of us and then Watford. The season could almost have been done after those two games.