Millwall's unlikely promotion push continues in a crunch London derby with Fulham live on Sky Sports on Friday. Ahead of the game, manager Neil Harris explains why building a team connected to the club's fanbase has been key to their Championship play-off charge...
"There needs to be a bond between the terraces and the pitch. We've certainly got that at the moment. The fans are happy. They can see a team they can identify with. And that's what football fans want."
There will be few managers in England revered by their team's supporters to the extent Neil Harris is at Millwall. The club's record-scorer as a player, Harris has now led Millwall into the Championship play-off places as a coach. He can do no wrong.
But perhaps it is Harris' understanding of the supporters' demands - forged across 15 years as a player, coach and manager at Millwall - which is at the heart of the success he's had both on the pitch and in the dugout in south London.
During his playing days with Millwall, Harris, a full-throttle but talented striker, was at the heart of two promotions from League One in 2001 and 2010, which sandwiched a run to the FA Cup final in 2004. The similarities between those sides and the current one he has created as a manager are easy to spot: the direct, aggressive football; dominance at the Den; and the obvious team spirit.
Indeed, Harris' Millwall of 2017/18 are playing in a style almost unique among the leading clubs in the Championship (they've made 10,000 passes fewer than Friday's opponents Fulham). They haven't lost at home since the start of November. And Sky Sports News recently captured a glimpse of the camaraderie in the camp at the team's weekly trip to a local Turkish restaurant.
Speaking with Harris at Millwall's modest training base, he insists it is no coincidence. Identity matters to him.
"It's the fans' club," he tells Sky Sports. "We're only part of the timeline in their journey. They pay their money and they want to be entertained in the style they want to be entertained in. Millwall is about hustle and bustle, aggression, winning... we have to produce that. And it's up to me to put in the players with the right ability and the right character to do it.
"The day I took over the job, in my first interview, I said the fans need to be proud of their team. I think every club is driven by its fanbase and what they expect. There might be a few exceptions at each level that are driven by the money that's invested, but the majority of clubs - and Millwall in particular - are driven by the fans.
"Don't shirk a challenge, run through a wall... it's driven by fans who want to see players do what they would do if they were on the pitch. That would be not pulling out of a tackle, show aggression in your body language...
"Unity among the players is key, too. Look at the Manchester United team at the end of the Millennium and how close they were and how close they still are. The good Millwall teams I played in, we had that. In 2001, in 2004 for the cup run and certainly in 2010 when we won promotion. They were built on team spirit.
"As a leader at the time, I was part of that and I believe in that. I don't think it necessarily means you're going to win the league, or win promotion or even finish in the top 10. But it means you get good standards, you get discipline and you get togetherness. That takes you to a certain level of success.
"The similarities in terms of the successful teams I was part of, we had that. We had the same. But we have to remember those teams had quality as well, good players, and we're no different now. We have good players."
Indeed, it is more than just passion which takes a team this far. And with just three games of the regular Championship campaign remaining, pre-season relegation favourites Millwall, working with one of the smallest budgets in the division, are on the brink of one of the most unlikely achievements.
From the increasingly solid defence, which has the third-best record in the Championship, to the creative talents in midfield of Jed Wallace and January loanee Ben Marshall, and the tone-setting front two of Lee Gregory and captain Steve Morison, they are strong across the park.
That is testament to Harris' work since 2015, when he took charge of a team facing an almost inevitable relegation from this division, before leading them to promotion from League One last season.
With Mick McCarthy departing Ipswich, Harris is now the longest-serving manager in the Championship and has had time to shape his squad - the first senior team he has managed.
"As a player, and a friend, I am very proud of him and to see the way he has evolved," Tim Cahill, Harris' former team-mate who re-joined Millwall in January, told Sky Sports when asked to assess his manager. "He understands players and tactics, and understands that his job is to pull players through in the dressing room.
"That is what I get most joy from - coming back and seeing how the club is being looked after by people who genuinely love the club. It has been excellent for him. He has put something together that looks like it could be special."
Some of those skills were picked up from the late Ray Wilkins, who coached Harris as Millwall's assistant manager during the FA Cup run in 2004. "It was a privilege for me to work with him, I learnt so much," said Harris.
"He coached not by aggression in his voice but by his personality and the respect he carried. He coached by demonstrations, 99 times out of 100 putting the ball exactly where it was supposed to go and then turning round and saying 'do you want me to do that with my left foot as well?' He was phenomenal.
"He was great company. Although I always have a shave on match days because I knew if I didn't and Ray was at the game, I'd be getting a call in the evening!"
Those standards are something Harris also expects from his players, believing anything other than maximum commitment will see Millwall unable to match their more expensively assembled rivals.
"We know we can't financially compete with bigger clubs with more resources and we don't moan about that because this is what we are," he said. "So we have to find other ways.
"That could be players with something to prove, which gives them an extra edge. But what I do demand are standards, timekeeping, appearance, respect for each other, the building, the staff and the training sessions we put on. If they drop their standards we can't compete at this level.
"I'm a believer that if you train in the right manner, you play in the right manner. I love down time, family time and them having their time together, dining together. But if we're going to do that, we have to get the balance right between training and time off. When we train we properly train, and when we're off, it's their time. I don't want to see them and they certainly don't want to see me."
Those intense bursts have reaped rewards so far and, since a New Year's Day defeat to Norwich, Millwall have gone 17 games unbeaten in the Championship. The momentum has gathered speed and seen the club surge into the top six.
It will be the next three games which decide their play-off prospects, though, with a trio of promotion contenders completing Millwall's fixture list: Fulham, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa.
Someone's 0 is likely to go when Millwall host Fulham this Friday. The west London visitors to the Den are 21 without loss and vying for an automatic spot. But Harris and his side will relish the test - and with the game sold out they'll be backed all the way by the home support.
"At the moment," says Harris, "no one wants to play Millwall and that's credit to how far this club has come."
Don't miss the Sky Bet Championship clash between Millwall and Fulham on Friday night, live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm
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