Millwall club record signing Mihailo Ivanovic has his first goal in English football – now the next target is a first start in a match.
The 19-year-old, who moved from Serbian club Vojvodina at the end of the summer transfer window for around £3million, scored the equaliser in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Derby County.
The Lions are missing two senior frontmen in Tom Bradshaw and Josh Coburn, both sidelined due to injury. Macaulay Langstaff has been handed the starting spot in recent fixtures.
Millwall are back in action on Wednesday night against Plymouth at The Den and Ivanovic has done no harm to boosting his chances of making the starting 11.
All five of his appearances have been as a second-half substitute.
“We’re very limited in our options at the minute, especially at the top end of the pitch,” said Lions head coach Neil Harris. “Macaulay has done extremely well in recent games. Mika is 19, moved abroad and hardly trained with us – we’ve had two international breaks and he was recovering from injury in between.
“We’ve hardly seen Mika on the training pitch. He has not had a lot of time to get up to speed with how we want to play.
“But the goal will do him a world of good and he certainly comes into the thinking for Wednesday night.
“I was delighted when he took it around the goalkeeper, because then it becomes an empty net. You put trust in him. It is a hefty price tag that follows him. But he is a very young man. It is lovely for all of us to see him out on the pitch.
“It will be important for me to learn more about him. What he showed today was composure in the penalty area.”
Millwall had a crowd of 17, 321 against the Rams, who had virtually sold out both tiers of the away end.
It will be very different for the visit of Plymouth for a midweek fixture that is a proper trek for Argyle.
“It is another opportunity playing in front of our fanbase,” said Harris. “Slightly different atmosphere, I imagine, on Wednesday. It’s a long way for Plymouth fans to come.
“It’s not the most exciting or sexy games on the fixture calendar, I guess for a Wednesday evening – Millwall-Plymouth at The Den. So we have to create an atmosphere.”
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