Millwall centre-back Shaun Hutchinson has admitted that the club owed the fans a big performance following their impressive weekend win against Preston.

Hutchinson scored the only goal of the game as The Lions narrowed the gap on the play-offs, with Alex Neil's side still sitting in sixth, and the fan favourite was quick to point out the travelling masses after the game.

“We knew with the fixture list, the five games before this one and this one, there were real tough sides,” the 29 year-old said after the game, reported by News At Den.

"It’s hit us a little bit how we performed, not only the results but the performances weren’t there, especially against West Brom.

"We’ve done a lot on the training ground, looked at that and we owed a performance even to the fans as well. A lot of them travelled up and we put on a performance and it’s another away win."

QUIZ: Can you name these 14 Millwall players just by looking at the clubs they have played for?

Preston were unbeaten in their last five heading into this clash at Deepdale but were frustrated early on, Bartosz Bialkowski denying Daniel Johnson and David Nugent in the first half.

As the game progressed, however, Millwall grew into the game more and more with Jayson Molumby and Tom Bradshaw both seeing efforts narrowly miss out on the desired outcome.

However, 12 minutes from time, Hutchinson popped up with his fifth strike of the season, heading home past a stranded Declan Rudd to move his side to within seven points of the play-offs.

The verdict

I think Hutchinson is being a little bit harsh on him and his team here - although it is good to see that standards are clearly high amongst the Lions.

Whilst results may have been a bit patchy in recent weeks they have still been playing at a level high above what many fans will have expected at the start of the season and that deserves praise.

However, there is no doubting that the win against Preston was a return to their resilient best.