Millwall boss takes positives from Fulham stalemate

The away side thought they had won it in the last few minutes through Hugo Rodallega, but the Colombian striker’s ‘goal’ was ruled out for offside.

In an evenly matched affair, Lee Gregory spurned the best chance for Millwall in the first half with a stretched volley going just over from a Jimmy Abdou cross.

Holloway said: “I don’t think it was the right result, I think we deserved to win.

“Maybe I’m biased, but that’s as good as we’ve been.

“Unfortunately we’ve had 16 efforts at goal and only four on target, so that’s what we’ve got to work on.

“I asked the team to take the game to them and be on the front foot, and I thought we were at the start of both halves.

“Luckily the linesman did his job right because Rodallega was offside.”

He added: “There were lots of things where we were about two or three inches from the cross hitting someone.

“That’s all we spoken about, getting bodies and crosses in the box and frustratingly we could have got a lot more.

“But that was a marked improvement.

“Again we kept the clean sheet, which helps, and I thought all we needed was a goal.

“The fans were crying out for that and the place was ready to be The Den again.”

Today’s result at least means the Lions are unbeaten from their two meetings against a side who have only just come down from a 13-year spell in the Premier League.

Holloway said: “The reality is we’ve just taken four points out of six off Fulham.

“Let’s see if we can do that to enough teams until the end of the season and I think we’ll be safe comfortably if we can.

“We felt pretty good with ourselves down in that dressing room.”

Holloway was impressed with the Millwall’s new look defence, with captain Alan Dunne partnering January signing Jos Hooiveld in the centre for a third clean sheet in five games.

The side have lost Lee Martin to a possible stress fracture, but on-loan midfielder Diego Fabbrini was at the heart of every Lions attack.

“Fabbrini is quite exciting, he’s wonderful to watch,” said Holloway.

“We just need to know where he’s going to end up when we lose the ball.

“He’s a wonderful lad and I’m glad we’ve got him, we just need to work on an area where we can keep him.

“I’d pay to watch him myself, he’s been a breath of fresh air.”

The Lions boss felt his side’s ability to adapt means they should escape the relegation zone, where they now lie three points off Rotherham.

He said: “When they changed to a diamond, that could have killed most teams.

“But we had to change to match them and that shows the strength of our new team.

“We’re still on target to actually beat last year.

“There’s 14 games left, we just need someone to pick up the goal scoring mantle, as long as we can defend like that.”

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