Ian Holloway praised his new look defence after Millwall secured a clean sheet and hard earned point from Saturday’s 0-0 draw at high-flying Derby.

There were recalls for Byron Webster and Matthew Briggs, with Alan Dunne moving from central defence to his more familiar right-back position and Shaun Williams coming back from midfield to partner Webster in the middle.

And the wholesale changes paid off as the Lions held the Rams on their own ground to stop the rot after back-to-back defeats at the hands of Huddersfield and Birmingham.

Manager Holloway said: “I was delighted with our back four.

“Byron Webster showed all sorts of character because I brought him off when we went two down after 12 minutes at Reading and didn’t deserve that.

“I brought him off because we needed it tactically.

“He took it like a man and I thought he was absolutely fantastic today.

“Obviously we’ve got a problem. We’ve lost our right-back who is like a Rolls-Royce which is Carlos Edwards, so I’ve had to ask Alan Dunne to go back to right-back.

“He hasn’t played there for nearly seven or eight months. He started a bit ropey, he got done with the first challenge by Jordan Ibe but we’ve come through it.”

Ollie added: “We will face our own challenges throughout the season.

“It just goes to show you have to be solid and then counter attack off of that if you can but if I’ve got any worry it is that we kept kicking it out.

“They just had an attack and we kept kicking it out – I don’t want people kicking it out.

“It feels a lot better than the last couple of games because everybody was talking about a crisis at Millwall last Tuesday night.”

In a game of few chances, the Lions’ defence were more than a match for last season’s beaten play-off finalists.

The home fans might have had the hump at the final whistle but Ollie had little sympathy for them.

He said: “We are going to have to take that, we are going to have to go back home and get a little bit stronger and a little bit better if we want to try and get where Derby are aiming to get, which is one of the favourites to getting towards the Premier League.

“They are going to have to learn to break people down if that is what is going to happen to them.

“That team has never played together before, that back four has never played together before so I practiced them on Friday.”

Holloway added: “When you come off the low ebb that we’ve been on, because literally we’ve limited the last three teams we’ve played to a total of 10 shots on target and we’ve let in eight goals, and that is what happens sometimes in football.

“What you’ve got to do is try to take your opportunities.

“You’ve got to try to limit the opposition to very few, you’ve got to try and play in a way that is also entertaining and if you don’t get it your fans go home unhappy like your lot (Derby ) will today, but you are improving all the time I think.”

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