Millwall manager Neil Harris was delighted with all three of his goalscorers in his side’s comfortable victory over Preston at The Den in the Sky Bet Championship.
Midfielder George Honeyman broke the deadlock with what was his first goal for two years before youngster Romain Esse, who had previously scored four times on the road, struck in front of his own supporters for the first time.
The afternoon got even better for Harris two minutes after half-time when Macauley Langstaff notched his first goal since arriving from League Two side Notts County in the summer.
The only negative of the afternoon for the hosts was a needless late red card for Aidomo Emakhu with the game already won after he lost his head following an initial yellow for diving.
Following his side’s second league win of the season, Harris said: “Ultimately, it’s a really good day for us, a really strong performance.
“I’m delighted for the three goalscorers, it was really important for all three goalscorers – Macauley and G to get off the mark and for Romain to get his first home goal, so confidence is really high in the changing room.
“G scores and then sets up Macauley for the third goal as well, so it’s really good to see the nine and 10 in that combination.
“I’m obviously really pleased for Romain as well and he just keeps lighting the place up with his movement and his use of the ball.
“I thought first half we dominated proceedings and I was really pleased with my goalkeeper [Lukas Jensen].
“I thought he kicked well, I thought he was assured on crosses and two really big saves as well – the one in the first half [from Brad Potts] was a really important save.”
Millwall were ahead after 24 minutes when Jake Cooper headed down George Saville’s free-kick before Langstaff was able to pull the ball back to give Honeyman an easy finish.
The Lions’ lead was doubled when Esse rounded Freddie Woodman before scoring from a narrow angle and Langstaff got in on the act from Honeyman’s cut-back two minutes into the second half.
A flurry of late chances for Preston led to Jordan Storey firing in an 87th-minute consolation before Millwall were reduced to 10 men when Emakhu was sent off for headbutting Robbie Brady.
Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom, who saw his side drop into the bottom three, said: “We got what we deserved, really, starting like that. We were really slow to start.
“We spoke so much about their set-plays and their threat and you can’t always stop good heading of the ball, but more often than not the area he heads it down to is the danger, and we spoke about that a lot.
“To concede that goal was really poor on our part, but it was coming; they’d already hit the bar and we’d had a few warnings.
“I felt that shook us into life a bit and we had a couple of good moments, and then the second goal is a counter-attack from our set-play.
“If you go 2-0 down, it’s difficult, especially here because Millwall can just sit in and deny space.
“We made some changes at half-time, created a good chance and then 60 seconds later we’re 3-0 down, again from being out-competed.”
