JOE Edwards believes the whole of Millwall’s defence could have done better to prevent Preston’s equaliser in yesterday’s draw at The Den.
Brad Potts took advantage of Japhet Tanganga giving the ball away on his first start for the Lions and netted an equaliser after 33 minutes.
The goal was Preston’s first real chance and completely swung the momentum of the game, with the visitors controlling the rest of the first half.
Reflecting on the moment, Edwards said: “It’s a poor goal across the backline really. It starts with Japh and Japh had loads of the ball and showed loads of moments where he was composed and you can see that quality that he possesses and the level that he played at. But for sure the pass is an error.
“But when Japh has that ball as our right-sided centre-back, between Wes and Coops we should have been opening up a bit more. They should not have been so close together.
“Joe’s opening out to open the pitch up which it’s easy to analyse now and say Joe Bryan’s miles away but when we were playing well against Leicester and Boro, that’s where our wing-backs were. So Joe’s getting ready to go and thinking we’re about to build an attack and when Japh makes that error, Coops and Wes obviously get caught too close together and we have a massive gap.
“So it’s those details that after the event we can all sit there and analyse it but when it happens that quickly, you can get punished.”
The Millwall head coach was happy with the way Tanganga responded to the mistake on his full debut.
He said: “I’ve known Japh for a long time and know him well and he’s quite a quiet lad, very composed. And although he defends and competes with an aggression and uses his power, he’s always got that calm demeanour. The mistake is out of character but everyone can make mistakes, the players at the top level make mistakes.
“After that, Japh got back to where he was individually. He got a lot of the ball the whole game, he continued to take the ball and was a big outlet for us. Hopefully he can keep building because it’s a long time since Japh played 90 minutes so that in itself is a big plus. There will be an element of a bit of rustiness about his game and that’s normal. He’s had a long time without regular football so that’s part of the process.
“In these initial games and weeks, there has to be a bit of leeway there that the players can’t just step into this team and turn it on that quickly necessarily, it’s not easy to do that.”
Michael Obafemi, on loan from Burnley, also made his first Millwall appearance as he came off the bench for Kevin Nisbet in the final 15 minutes.
Edwards was asked in his post-match press conference what the prospect was of the Lions landing both players permanently in the summer.
He said: “To be honest I think that will be stuff that’s out of our control. From my point of view, although I’d love to think long-term, it’s also about achieving as much as we can this season. I don’t want to end up where we get to a point towards the end where we are in a position that’s worrying. I want us to win as many games as we can, as soon as we can. So it was about adding quality to the squad.
“Because we got to a point mid-Jan where the performances and results had been up and down. So if you can add players to their level to that then great.
“I suppose the flip of that is that if Japh comes here and Michael come in and have really strong second halves of the season, those two as individuals and their parent clubs might then see it differently.
“From my point of view, loan players are predominantly to improve the level here and now.”