Leicester just caught us at a bad time, says Millwall’s Neil Harris

Neil Harris says Millwall’s FA Cup run is “some achievement” and that his team have taken advantage of weakness on the part of their Premier League opponents to reach the quarter-finals.

Millwall beat Leicester City on Saturday with a last-minute goal from the full-back Shaun Cummings to add the Premier League champions to Bournemouth and Watford on the list of top-flight teams knocked out of this season’s tournament at The Den. But Harris believes the result could have been different had the visitors shown the same clinical approach as his own team.

“You beat one Premier League team it’s a shock,” he said, “to beat a second one you’ve done really, really well, but to beat three... that’s some achievement. That’s a testimony to my players, to their hunger and their willingness to learn. If you go into big games, should you spend more time on the opposition? We don’t, we do the same diligence for every game and it’s just been about players being able to raise their game.

“There were moments in each half where our keeper, Jordan Archer, made really good saves and you just want those moments to go in your favour,” he continued. “Claudio Ranieri would say it was really poor finishing by them, though. I expect my strikers to be clinical and the difference between Shinji Okazaki [who had two good chances saved by Archer] and Shaun Cummings was that Cummings was clinical.”

Archer was signed by Millwall from Tottenham two years ago, initially on loan then permanently the following summer, and Harris praised the 23-year-old’s performance. “He’s come from Spurs to us because he’s desperate to be number one at a young age,” said the manager. “He’s got hunger and appetite to be better all the time and when I wasn’t playing him last year, he was banging my door down. He wants to play, he doesn’t like being dropped and I think he showed his quality today.”

Harris was sympathetic to the plight of his opposite number, Ranieri, who is confronting the possibility of being relegated a season after winning the Premier League title. “I feel for him today,” he said. “All players and managers have been on the wrong end of results like this and they caught us at a bad time today. They caught us at a time when we’re really good. I feel for him because he’s a legend in the game. He’s a top guy from what I understand and I love watching his teams play. He’s got a great group of players, they’ll be fine this year.”

The Metropolitan police confirmed on Sunday that three people had been arrested following the pitch invasion at the end of the match during which missiles, mostly plastic bottles, were thrown between rival supporters. It also confirmed that there had been a specific policing plan in place for the match, which included the use of police horses.

“Officers dealt with disorder following the Millwall v Leicester City FA Cup tie on Saturday”, a spokesman for the Met said. “Three men were arrested on suspicion of affray. All three currently remain in custody pending further inquires. A policing plan was in place for the game and additional officers were deployed.”

It is also understood that the Football Association are to look into the matter, while reports in the Leicester Mercury claimed away supporters had been intimidated throughout the match. “It was really scary,” one fan said. “We were abused throughout the match and had coins thrown at us. Our bus was also attacked on the way out.”