Ian Holloway has been using the short break in Millwall’s schedule to integrate his new signings into the squad. 

Before hosting Reading at The Den on Tuesday night Millwall  had gone 10 days without a fixture, since the 3-1 home defeat by Ipswich.

In that time striker Scott McDonald and defender Matthew Briggs were among those to leave the club, but with Dan Harding, Diego Fabbrini, Shaun Cummings, Paris Cowan-Hall, Jos Hooiveld and Stefan Maierhofer already recruited the manager has had a chance to reorganise his team.

“We have been working our new players in to the group to help us play as a team. We did really well against Ipswich when I put out a new-look side, which was as a result of losing patience with some of the people I had been trying to encourage beforehand.”

Millwall were out of action at the weekend because they were eliminated from the FA Cup by Bradford, though that defeat looks less damaging since the League One side’s shock 4-2 victory away at Premier League leaders Chelsea.

“Everyone has got the message now and I would much rather have had a game in the FA Cup over the weekend to help us gel some more, but we didn’t deserve that with what happened against Bradford.

“My job is to build a better and stronger Millwall and that is what I intend to do. We had to bring forward what we planned to do in the summer in terms of changing the squad around a bit to give us that fresh impetus.

“I’ve had a bit of time in training now to gel this team together and get across what I want. We need to discover that mindset of confidence and belief in what we do. 

“The end of last year showed that when you have your mind right you can achieve anything.

“The Championship is a great division and you can never predict what is going to happen. 

“We proved that last year when everybody had written us off and this time around we are going to have to do what we did in eight games in 20.”

Dutch defender Hooiveld, 31,  on loan from Southampton until the end of the season, is Holloway’s most recent signing of the January transfer window.

He is in line to make his debut on Tuesday against Reading and will provide experience and, Millwall will hope, consistency in a back four that has regularly changed throughout the season.

McDonald, meanwhile, was the latest departure, following Paul Robinson, Josh Wright, Stephen Bywater, Scott Malone, Jermaine Easter and Briggs out of the club.

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