Millwall centre-back Jake Cooper has expressed his relief after finally bagging his first goal of the 2019/20 season on Tuesday night.

He netted the second in a 2-1 win away to Bristol City, a result which extended Gary Rowett's impressive start to life at The Den, and he has now admitted that the strike is now a weight off his shoulders.

“It was massive relief, you could see from the celebrations it was a weight off my shoulders,” Cooper said, reported by News At Den.

“Hopefully I can get some more the rest of the season.

“I’ve had a bit of stick with the lack of goals and I’ve taken it quite to heart. I put myself under pressure to score goals. They see that and have shown me a lot of joy now that I’m finally off the mark."

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Gary Rowett's side now sit just four points off the top-six following that impressive Tuesday night win.

Millwall took the lead in the 13th minute when some impressive play from Shaun Hutchinson and Mahlon Romeo eventually led to the ball falling to the feet of Jed Wallace, who made no mistake with the finish.

City continued to dominate possession but could not break down their stubborn opponents and with 20 minutes left it was 2-0, Cooper heading home Wallace's free-kick.

It was a win that moved them up into 13th place with 21 games played and Molumby and they will no doubt be keen to see where this impressive run can take them from now on.

The verdict

It is these high-standards to which Cooper holds himself which make him such a huge assett to Millwall.

Last season we saw a side which was largely falling apart thanks to poor characters in the dressing room but had they all had the same attitudes as the centre-back, they may well have been challenging much higher in the table.

Now it seems that they do have those characters and Rowett is doing an excellent job of gelling them together as quickly as he can.

It is pretty exciting to see how far Millwall can go now.