Safe at last

Last updated : 26 April 2008 By Van Blerk's Crossing
Neil Harris
Harris: Man of the Match
Millwall finally secured their place in League One with one of their best performances of the season as they battered promotion-chasing Carlisle United 3-0 at The Den this afternoon.

And central to their performance was departing striker Neil Harris, who wore his heart on his sleeve for the entire 90 minutes, setting up two of the goals and scoring the other.

The Lions dominated the game from start to finish, limiting their visitors to a few off-target long-range efforts, and took their chances when it mattered to make sure they couldn't be caught by either Gillingham or Bournemouth. And it could have been a lot worse for United, but for Keiran Westwood, who restricted Millwall to just the three goals with a series of splendid saves throughtout the afternoon.

The breakthrough finally came just before half-time when Harris laid off a superb ball to Jay Simpson, who fired home from 18-yards, and it was Harris who all but made sure of the points just after half-time when he went on the kind of run that made his name before being brought down by Danny Livesey just as he was about to shoot. The ref pointed to the spot and sent the Carlisle captain off for good measure before Harris dispatched the penalty for 2-0.

And the win was sealed nine minutes later when the veteran striker latched on to a deep cross from Ahmet Brkovic to head back across the goal for Tony Craig, who made no mistake from three-yards out.

"We played very well but I felt a win like that had been coming," said a delighted Kenny Jackett after the game. "We've played well in other games but not scored but we got the goals at the right time today.

"We needed to back up our good football with goals and hopefully we've shown people what we can do, because passing the ball is the way I want to play.

"Today was about getting the right result, which we did. I've had half an eye on next season, but that's all it ever was while we weren't safe. Now we can plan for next season and our aim is promotion."