Skip to content

Sky Bet Championship: Ian Holloway delighted after Millwall beat Nottingham Forest

Ian Holloway of Millwall celebrates his teams first goal during the FA Cup Third Round match between Millwall and Bradford City at The Den
Image: Ian Holloway: Delighted to beat Forest again

Ian Holloway hopes a 1-0 victory at Nottingham Forest will kick start a survival push from his Millwall side - and admitted: "I wish I could play here every week."

The Lions had not won since beating Brighton on December 12, losing six of their eight games since, but substitute Ricardo Fuller's 83rd-minute goal helped ease the pressure on Holloway and piled a little more on the shoulders of Reds boss Stuart Pearce.

Millwall remain in the bottom three of the Sky Bet Championship but now lie just two points adrift of safety.

And Holloway said: "I wish I could play here every week, I think that is my fourth win on the bounce at Forest as a manager.

"I don't know about the other results, but we have 18 games left and it is about us as a team now.

"Everyone has played their part in a tough game and it was not the best game in the world, but we have come out with another clean sheet and it was great that Fuller has come off the bench and got the goal for us.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Millwall shocked Nottingham Forest with a 1-0 Championship win at the City Ground

"The boys have to be together and I am proud of their efforts. It is a tough division and we have to do better, but this win really does help. It really does help that we have nicked this. We have to build on this.

"It was great, fantastic. Let's get back on the bus and look forward to the next game."

Pearce, who has overseen a frustrating run of just one win in Forest's last 11 games, laid the blame for defeat at the feet of his strikers, with Michail Antonio and Britt Assombalonga both failing to convert decent chances.

"It was a disappointing afternoon in regard to the result, definitely," he said.

"Millwall were a team who were waiting to be beaten. I was disappointed that we did not. I thought our front two could win us the game, but they did not do enough to do it.

"We created chances but we did not have the gumption and the oomph to take the game by the scruff of the neck and grind the opposition into the ground.

"I can't take any credit away from Millwall because they have come here and won the game. But that was a game for us to win, it was there for us to win comfortably by 2-0 or 3-0. But we could not get that first goal.

"Earlier in the season when Britt Assombalonga or Michail Antonio got into those positions they would have scored. Today they did not.

"Now we need a win just so that we can start looking up above us again, rather than looking over our shoulders at the teams behind us."

Around Sky