GEORGE SAVILLE has hailed Neil Harris as among the best man managers around after the stunning impact the head coach has made on his return to Millwall.
Having been sleepwalking into a relegation battle before Harris’ arrival, the 46-year-old has steered the Lions to 10 points out of a potential 12 and away from the bottom three.
Saville played under Harris during his previous spell in charge at The Den and highly rates his manager’s ability to get players fired up.
The midfielder, 30, told NewsAtDen: “He’s a man manager, right up there with the best for me. We’ve got that relationship going back quite a few years now. It just shines through him as a guy. He’s so loyal, so honest, just a great guy. And he puts that into his players.
“When you get out there, you want to do what you can for him. And for me, that’s just what we need right now.”
Harris takes his side to rivals Leeds United next as he looks to stretch his unbeaten run since returning to five games.
His first match back last month was away at Southampton, where Millwall pulled off an unlikely win against the promotion-chasers.
Saville believes they can take confidence from that feat.
He said: “Leeds is a big game for the football club. It’s a fixture I’ve always enjoyed as well, especially playing for Millwall. Leeds away at Elland Road, the position they’re in as well, there’s not many better places to go and play football to be honest.
“We’ve shown how difficult we are to play against at the moment. Not many teams will probably want to play us right now. We’re really working hard, we’re really hard to beat.
“It’s a difficult fixture for them and the Southampton game gives us confidence we can go and beat the top teams. We’ll go and be difficult on Sunday and try and get a result.”
Of the current squad, only Saville, Jake Cooper and Shaun Hutchinson were part of the team who grabbed a memorable 4-3 win in January 2018 at Elland Road, while Harris was in the dugout.
Saville smiled as he recalled the dramatic afternoon, which featured two late goals from Tom Elliott and Jed Wallace in what was Millwall’s last win away at rivals Leeds.
He said: “That day was incredible. I think we were 2-0 up, I got their centre-half sent off. And then within 15 minutes of the second half, they were 3-2 up and you could just hear the noise. And to turn it around again was just incredible. That’s one game that will live long in my memory for sure, it was an incredible day.
“We hadn’t won away from home the whole season and we went and picked up a result there that sparked us to winning five or six in a row.
“We were playing there with no fear, nothing to lose. It was our first year in the Championship and trying to get results. Whereas now it’s a bit different, we’re in a different situation. A lot of stuff has happened this year but we’ve got a lot of people who have good experience throughout the team here. We’ve got a manager that’s been there and done it, players that have been there before. It’s a challenge to be excited about.”
Saville, who has made 183 appearances for Millwall, is out of contract at the end of the season but he insists there is work to be done on the pitch before he will focus his full attention on that situation.
He said: “There’s discussions to be had, obviously. I think at the moment we’re just working together to put the football club first so it’s just about putting the football club where it needs to be and then I’m sure we can have discussions after that.”
