Millwall defender Byron Webster has offered his thoughts as to why the Lions are in for a tougher season this time around after their first year back in the Championship after promotion.

The Lions managed an eighth-place finish last term and were in with a shout for a late push towards the play-offs.

Despite being on a high after how last season ended, Neil Harris’ men have won one of their nine matches this year, losing five to see them third bottom of the division at this early stage.

Webster, who played his first game in a year at the weekend in the 2-0 defeat to West Brom spoke afterwards about the difficulty his side faces ahead of the remaining 37 games.

The defender suffered a severe knee injury last September in the defeat to Barnsley but is now back playing and spoke to NewsAtDen regarding Millwall’s plight.

The 31-year-old said: “Teams are showing us respect, they’re changing their style of play. QPR brought in another holding midfielder [Cameron] who’s a centre-half who has to compete with Moro [Steve Morison].

“Teams are showing us respect, so we showed some respect [Saturday]. We sat in our shape, and we’ve counter-attacked them.”

The Verdict

To a certain degree, Byron Webster is right.

Millwall were the surprise package last season, and teams will be wary of them this term after their heroics of the previous year.

But one thing he failed to mention is the Lions’ style of play which every team will now know about and learn how to combat it.

Something has to give for Neil Harris, who traditionally has a team of slow starters but they get progressively better as the season ticks on.

It is a rut for the Lions, and they will need to find that spark to improve them one way or another or face a relegation battle this year.