Big Millwall Interview: ‘He brought toilet rolls into a video meeting…before the game he told us: don’t get shit on your fingers’

AFTER Millwall’s 2-1 loss to Bristol City on April 30, 2019, a furious Neil Harris sat down in front of the media and tore into a squad that had badly disappointed him and the fanbase.

“Some players have really let me down this year and have let the football club down. There’s been a lot that won’t come out that has made it difficult.

“A lot goes on that people don’t see. What I want is a group of players that I’ve had in the past that we’ve not had at times this year. A group of players that show commitment to the cause, that are good in the dressing room, that are professional within the football club, have a winning mentality and want to be better and learn.

“Players this year haven’t had that, that have told me they don’t ever want to play for this club again.”

He did, however, strike a different tone when discussing Lee Gregory.

“How good was Lee Gregory tonight? He’s been an unbelievable player for me.

“The attitude to want to play, to train, to put himself forward to work, that’s the kind of character we need.”

The match was the last time the Sheffield-born striker would grace The Den.

Seven days later, following a 1-0 loss to Wigan, Harris confirmed the then 30-year-old Gregory would be bringing an end to his fantastic five-year spell at the club.

264 games, 77 goals and that assist for Steve Morison’s winner at Wembley ensured the Sheffield-born striker would always be fondly remembered at The Den, while his diligence off the pitch made him one of Harris’ most trusted lieutenants.

That stood in contrast to some of his team-mates during that underwhelming 2018-19 season.

“I think it's just because I got on with my job, and I loved my job,” Gregory tells NewsAtDen . “I made sure I was fit every day, I made sure I was professional.

“Unfortunately, in football, you don't get everyone that's the same. I suppose that's in a good way as well, but all the manager wants is for him to tell you what to do, and you just do it.

“I've always been brought up with my dad saying, 'You should do as you're told'. If the coaches are asking you to do something, you do it because they can see it better than you.

“I gave him no stress and no hassle, and just made sure I was fit every day and every game and cracked on.”

So why did others fall short of those standards?

“Every manager wants the ultimate professional, and when you've got 25 players, you're never going to get 25 ultimate professionals, and it probably just came down to that, really,” Gregory says. “Not saying that anyone was bad or good or whatever. I gave 100 per cent every single day, and some players didn't.

“Not to name names or dig anyone out. It's just some players wouldn't, and some players would, and that was that. Probably just down to that.”

Gregory has plenty of highlights to pick from his time at The Den: a brace against Bristol City to help secure the play-offs in 2016-17, his strike against Scunthorpe in the semi-finals and assist for Morison in the final, and finishing as top or joint-top scorer in four of his five seasons at SE16.

However, there was a more light-hearted moment that particularly stands out to him.

Gregory was brought to the club in the summer of 2014 by Ian Holloway, who won him over with a charm offensive. Holloway’s eccentric personality and personable nature meant he stood out from the other managers Gregory spoke to that summer, one of whom he remembers taking an instant dislike to.

The move gave him his first taste of Championship football, but it did not go to plan at first. Gregory had scored just three goals by New Year’s Day, and Millwall were plummeting in Holloway’s second season in charge.

Much has been made of the various ways Holloway tried to motivate his side as they moved further and further towards the relegation abyss, but one particularly peculiar method stuck in Gregory’s mind.

“He’d always show some sort of video in meetings, or he'd always say something, but this one time, he brought in a roll of toilet paper,” Gregory says. “Everyone’s sat in chairs, but you’re sat in four rows. So there were four rows of chairs.

“He gives one piece to the first guy, one piece to the second guy, one piece to the third guy in the row, and he's like, ‘So what do you do with this paper? If he [the player in the front row] wipes his arse, what happens to your finger? It goes through the fucking paper. You're getting shit on your finger. If you put two pieces of paper together, what happens? You get shit on your finger again.

“But if you put three and four, what happens to your finger? You're clean. And that's how I want us to play. I want us to play in a block, a team together, so we don't concede any shit goals.’ I just started laughing.

“I just had to laugh a little bit because he's so serious and emotional with it. It was brilliant how he brought in toilet rolls into a video meeting. Before the game, he was like, ‘Right, boys, don't get shit on your fingers.’

“What you see on the Sky Sports, he was the same. Such a massive character and very emotional in his work. I liked him. Some of his quotes still sit with me today.”

His relationship with Harris was very different. The Millwall legend quickly got the best out of Gregory, whose form improved immediately after his appointment.

In the final ten games, he scored four goals - almost half his total for the season.

“He just made it so simple for me,” Gregory says. “When you first come into the club, you don't know if you're playing, you don't know what's happening.

“But with Neil Harris, as soon as he got the job, he literally just said: ‘You're my starter. You're my striker. I don't care if you miss 25 million shots, don't care what happens, you're my striker'.

“He just gave me that belief, and he was like, ‘If you're fit, you're starting every game'. It was just that bit of confidence, and he made everything so simple for me.

‘I don't want you doing this. I just want you to do this. That is it'.”

For the next four seasons, Gregory was near-undroppable and developed a fantastic knack of being at the exact right place at the exact right time in the box, a skill honed under the tutelage of Millwall’s all-time leading goalscorer.

“We used to work on finishing quite a lot,” Gregory says. “He’d literally take us strikers away from the team. He was like, ‘Stuff all that defending crap. Let's just go and shoot some balls in the goal down here. Come on, boys'.

“He’d literally just take us away from all the defending and all the stuff that they need to do and just work on all different types of finishing in and around the box. Where the ball would land - little things like that.

“But repetition all the time. When you know the ball's coming in the box, you just get a knack for where to stand. You don't get much time in the box. That's what he always used to say. No more time. So try not to take any touches, just quick fire, quick fire.”

As fruitful as the player-manager partnership was, it was heading for an amicable separation. Gregory’s contract was up in summer 2019, and Millwall were coming off a dreadful season with a much-needed squad refresh coming down the pipeline.

The club wanted him to stay and offered him a new deal, but Gregory felt it was time to move on.

“I had just started my family, had a child,” Gregory says. “Had been at Millwall for five years. I was getting a bit of interest from clubs up north, and the attraction of going back home was big for me.

“I'd been there five years, and it felt like the right time to move on. That was it, really, at the time. As footballers and as strikers, it's the old saying, you need to strike while the iron's hot. I had a lot of interest from other clubs, and I thought the grass was greener.

“So I wanted to explore that, and looking back, I wish I'd have stayed. You can never go on regrets because I wanted to leave at that time, so I just have to go on with that.

“Neil was great with me. He was like, 'Whatever you want to do, I will support you. We want you to stay here'.

“He did offer me new contracts. We were honest with each other from the get-go when I told him the clubs and the money situation and where it was, and he was just like, 'If there's nothing we can do, then thank you for the services'.

“He was not like, 'You're not leaving'. He was great with it, and I think because we were both honest from the start, there was no 'you've got to stay' or 'I want to leave'. It was none of that. I felt like it was the right time to leave.”

He signed for Championship rivals Stoke City, where he spent a season before moving on to Derby County for a campaign, then three at Sheffield Wednesday before finishing his career at League One side Mansfield Town.

“Loved it at Sheffield Wednesday,” Gregory says. “Absolutely loved it. Loved it at Derby as well.

“Stoke, it just didn't fit. That's what happens in football. You go somewhere, and it doesn't fit, and that's it. It happens from the elite level all the way down. Sometimes it fits, sometimes it doesn't. And I just didn't fit it at Stoke and that's fine.

“But loved my time at Sheffield Wednesday, and I loved my time at Mansfield last year. I know I only had a year, but it was very enjoyable.”

Gregory was still productive as a 37-year-old, scoring ten goals in League One. He entered contract discussions with Mansfield last summer, but ultimately, his age caught up with him.

“I never wanted to hang my boots up,” Gregory says. “I thought I was going to play till about 40, but I had a knee injury last year. Had that operated on, and I just couldn't get back. I couldn't get back to professional football. It just wouldn't cope with the load of what it needed to be.”

Now retired, Gregory was back at The Den on March 14, walking out onto the pitch before his former side took on Blackburn Rovers and unsurprisingly receiving a very warm reception.

“It feels like home for me,” Gregory says. “Even though I was there for five years, it just feels like home. I just loved it, everything about it. The club, the fans, the staff, the players. I just loved it.”