Neil Harris insists he knew he could trust Steve Morison with the Millwall armband after Tony Craig suffered a long-term injury.

Craig was sidelined for over five months this season and required surgery on a knee injury he picked up in the 0-0 draw with Bradford in October.

It was initially feared the club captain would not feature again until next term but he marked his return in April and featured in both semi-final ties.

Harris says Morison, who returned to the Den for his third spell at the club last summer, was the obvious choice to take over the captaincy.

The manager said: “Steve has scored the goals, he’s played probably more minutes than anyone else in my squad.

“He puts in quality performances and leads by example.

He’s a strong character, he’ll tell someone either way if need be, but he’ll do it in the right manner.

“Tony Craig is the club captain and rightly so. When we lost Tony to injury it was a big call for me where to go from there with the armband.

“Steve was the obvious choice because of my relationship with him is solid and I knew I could trust him.”

Craig, 31, was also brought back to Millwall by Harris in the summer and the boss says it was important to add leadership to his squad ahead of the season.

“Morison has been an outstanding leader this season. It was important for me to bring Steve and Tony Craig back into the group,” Harris added.

“We integrated Byron Webster after his disappointment last year. He wasn’t really given an opportunity, went out to Yeovil.

“I knew I’d got good leadership qualities in the group. I knew in David Forde and Jimmy Abdou I had really solid characters.”