Millwall 1-0 Leicester City: FLW report as Ryan Longman wonderstrike gives hosts vital win | OneFootball

Ryan Longman's wonderstrike earned relegation-threatened Millwall a vital 1-0 win over Championship leaders Leicester City at The Den in a big result at both ends of the table.

Neil Harris got his game plan bang on as the Lions frustrated the visitors with their energy and defensive structure before Longman made the most of a breakaway just ahead of the hour mark by firing a long-range effort in off the crossbar.

The three points comes at a vital time for the South Londoners, who had been sinking towards the bottom three but finish the evening four points above the drop zone - with some of the sides below them still to play tomorrow.

Leicester, meanwhile, have handed the onus back to Ipswich Town in the race for automatic promotion - with Leeds United able to close the gap but not move back above the Foxes after their draw against Sunderland.

Millwall 1-0 Leicester City

No Championship team has had more shots from set pieces than Millwall this term and Leicester were forced to weather an early assault from their hosts. They stood firm - Ryan Longman's glancing header inside a minute was easily collected by Mads Hermansen while Foxes defenders rose highest to nod away probing deliveries from corners and Ryan Leonard's long throw.

Harris' side did well to disrupt the visitors attempts to build in the opening quarter of an hour and the Championship leaders soon started to crank up the tempo in response as they searched for a breakthrough.

Since the club legend's return, however, the Lions' approach has been built around a structured defence and they continued to frustrate Leicester. Indeed, apart from rushing out to rob Stephy Mavididi early on, Millwall goalkeeper Matija Sarkic didn't have a save to make in the first half.

The visitors' dominance of possession had limited opportunities at the other end, too, but Millwall's chance came two minutes before the break. Leonard's long throw was headed back to him and the right-back picked out Jake Cooper at the back post but the towering centre-back couldn't get enough on his header to beat Hermansen.

Millwall were forced into a change inside six second half minutes, with an injury to George Honeyman seeing him replaced by 18-year-old Romain Esse, but it was more of the same after the restart with Leicester patiently trying to find their opening.

Yunus Akgun thought he'd found it when a deep Danny McNamara's missed defensive header allowed the winger's space for a shot but Cooper was out quickly to smother his powerful strike.

The Lions, meanwhile, were more than happy to feed off scraps and they got their reward in the 59th-minute when Longman put them ahead with a stunning long-range effort.

A loose ball in midfield was scooped up by Billy Mitchell, who sent the Hull City loanee away down the left flank. He drove forward, cut inside a back-peddling defender and then unleashed a sensational strike that flew in off the crossbar.

Enzo Maresca introduced Abdul Fatawu but with Leicester throwing players forward, Millwall nearly doubled their lead through Michael Obafemi with a little more than 20 minutes to go. Esse slid the striker through on goal but Wout Faes just did enough to knock him off his stride and he was denied by Hermansen.

Pereira's flying backpost header flew high and wide not long after but despite the arrival of Kelechi Iheanacho, James Justin, and Dennis Praet, the promotion hopefuls were kept at bay - both by some backs to the wall defending and a few strong saves from Sarkic. The best of the lot came inside the last ten minutes when Fatawu burst down the right and let fly from a tight angle, with the Millwall keeper down quickly to deny him.

The biggest drama was saved for the seven minutes of added time, however, when Mitchell cleared Iheanacho's goalbound header off the line - a phenomenal piece of defending that helped secure the three points and could end up keeping Millwall in the Championship.

Matija Sarkic - 8

Ryan Leonard - 8

Japhet Tanganga - 7

Jake Cooper - 8

Danny McNamara - 7

Billy Mitchell - 9

George Saville - 7

George Honeyman - 6 (Romain Esse (51) - 7)

Zian Flemming - 6 (Casper De Norre (90) - 6)

Ryan Longman - 8 (Brooke Norton-Cuffy (90) - 6)

Michael Obafemi - 7 (Tom Bradshaw (76) - 6)

Unused subs: Bart Bialkowski, Shaun Hutchinson, Adam Mayor, Brooke Norton-Cuffy, Aidomo Emakhu, Casper De Norre, Wes Harding

Leicester City player ratings

Mads Hermansen - 7

Ricardo Pereira - 7

Wout Faes - 7

Jannik Vestergaard - 6

Callum Doyle - 6 (James Justin (73) - 6)

Harry Winks - 6 (Patson Daka (88) - 5)

Wilfred Ndidi - 6 (Dennis Praet (73) - 6)

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall - 6

Yunus Akgun - 6 (Abdul Fatawu (62) - 6)

Stephy Mavididi - 5

Jamie Vardy - 5 (Kelechi Iheanacho (73) - 6)

Unused subs: Jakub Stolarczyk, James Justin, Conor Coady, Marc Albrighton, Hamza Choudhury,

The attendance for Millwall v Leicester at The Den was 14,899.

That included 1,873 away fans.

"So Millwall-like isn't it," said Harris post match. "To lose at Huddersfield, to lose at Rotherham and then come back and beat the league leaders. It's what this football club does.

"I'm delighted because it's been a tough week for all of us. A tough week for the football club and the fanbase. I could sense a little bit of nervous anticipation and fear coming back into the football. I said to the group yesterday: 'I don't have time for that. I've not come here for that. I've come here to try and galvanise and support and help. It's down to you when you're back at The Den, where everyone has told me you can't do it, you can't play. Go on, go show me'. And they did. They've answered that critic again."

"I thought we scored a goal that was worthy of winning any game at this level. I thought the shape and discipline of the team was as good as any team that I've put on the pitch here at The Den. I'm talking Brighton, Everton, Leicester in FA Cup games against Premier League teams. It was an excellent Millwall performance."

"Tough night," Maresca told the press after the game. "In the first half, we struggled a little bit on the ball, we were not clean. We knew that they are a compact team, they defended very well but we were not clean.

"Because we are playing every three days, we expected to find more space and solutions in the second half but at the end, they scored a fantastic goal.

"Don't give too much importance. I said the same after the Birmingham City and Norwich City games. Now is not the time to think too much, tonight is gone. We are going to analyse the game with the right time but now it's more focus on recovering energy and going again Friday."

Quizzed on why the promotion chasers were finding consistency tough in the final weeks of the season, he added: "I don't know to be honest. The last 12, 10, 8 games, it's more or less similar for all the teams. You struggle a little bit more because the opposition are playing for an important target - to survive, get promoted or the play-offs. Every club is playing for an important target and probably the reason (the top clubs are struggling) is because the intensity is higher and because we've played more or less 50 games already so for the players it's the end of the season. It's a problem for us but for all the clubs."