JAKE Cooper is always one to seek out the positives in Championship football, which is reflected in his reaction to Millwall’s game against Norwich City last Saturday.
For him, there is little time to ponder the result itself. Instead, he is focusing on yet another impressive performance that deserved more than a 3-2 defeat.
The Lions out-performed their opponents in almost every regard except for possession and goals, and ultimately, the latter is what will decide whether or not they secure a play-off place at the end of the season.
For now, however, the league table is far from the priority, and Cooper believes that the way his side played last weekend shows that they are more than capable of competing at the top end of the division.
“I think the way that we started the game and were playing was great,” Cooper told NewsAtDen. “It was great to be back at home with a sold-out stadium again, so it felt like we were really in control.
“It’s just those moments that are key – in this league especially – that let us down, but I think it was probably our best performance in three or four games.
“I think we’re almost better when the games are backed up like they were and it was just one of those ones where we were unfortunate and didn’t deal with the threats like we should have done.”
The match against the Canaries came after a hectic February when Millwall managed to climb into the top six as they took points off a number of their promotion rivals.
Millwall had seven games in 25 days, and Cooper relished the opportunity to play regular football against some of the biggest teams in the league.
“I enjoy it when it’s like that,” Cooper said. “I think it’s one of my strengths. I think I almost come into my own when the season gets to this point, when the schedule thickens up and the games are coming thick and fast. I really enjoy it.
“I think I’m very reliable and my injury record speaks for itself, so the more games the better for me.
“I’ve been enjoying the form we’ve been in and the run we’ve been on. I think we still need to improve, our clean sheets haven’t been good enough. That’s something we’ve got to work on to get back to that.
“We go into a nice little run with these last three games [at Reading today and at home to Swansea and Huddersfield] before the international break and hopefully we can improve on a couple of those things.”
One player who has certainly benefited from regular football is Cooper’s current centre-back partner Charlie Cresswell, who returned to Millwall’s starting line-up to replace the injured Shaun Hutchinson in January. Creswell, 20, started the season on fire after joining on loan from Leeds United, scoring both goals in the 2-0 win over Stoke City on the opening day, before Hutchinson reclaimed his place.
However, Cresswell’s performances in the last few weeks have been nothing short of exceptional. He won NewsAtDen’s Millwall player of the month award for February as he kept his club captain out of the team.
Asked how Cresswell has improved so much in such a short space of time, Cooper replied: “I think you just have to learn.
“The more games he plays at this level, the more he will learn about what works for him and for the side.
“He’s definitely learned how to play in this Millwall team. He’s looking better and better in almost every game now. He looks much more assured and you can just see little parts of his game that he’s started to change around the fact that he’s now playing for Millwall and playing regularly in the Championship. Maybe he hadn’t experienced that before.
“It’s just learning from mistakes, putting that into your game and moving forward from there. I think he’s just learned from the things that he’s maybe got a little bit wrong, like we all have to do.
“He’s done very well with it.”
Image: Millwall FC