Millwall manager Gary Rowett praised the all-round contribution of stand-in skipper and matchwinner Jake Cooper following the 1-0 Sky Bet Championship victory at struggling Reading.

Central defender Cooper, a former Reading academy graduate, headed home the only goal of the game in the 37th minute from a Jed Wallace corner.

Although Reading dominated much of the second half, the Millwall defence held firm to secure a fifth successive victory.

The Lions are now only three points away from the play-off spots.

“It was a good delivery from Jed Wallace and Jake rises highest against his old club,” Rowett said.

“It was a great header and he’s scored a few of them in recent weeks. He’s been invaluable to us.

“I thought he was excellent today. As our captain, he gave a real leadership performance. And to cap it all with a goal that wins us the game was really nice.”

Rowett added: “It’s the Championship and sometimes you have to find different ways to win.

“And in this little run that we’re on, we’ve certainly done that.

“At times today, there were certain areas where we just had to dig it out and defend well in an organised manner.

“We knew that Reading would be compact defensively in the first half but we moved the ball quite well up until the final third.

“They looked dangerous on a couple of transitions through (John) Swift and (Lucas) Joao, but that was about it. It was really just the final pass for us.

“In the second half, we had a couple of good moments early on but didn’t quite pass the ball well enough after that.

“Reading were always going to throw a bit of caution to the wind but I don’t think we had too many problems.

“You have to see those moments out, which we did, and it’s another big win for us.”

After Derby’s 2-0 win over Barnsley, Reading now lie just five points clear of the drop zone.

“Yes, we had plenty of the ball, but we lacked that little bit of quality in the last third,” said Reading’s first-team coach Michael Gilkes.

“From a performance point of view, I think it was really positive. But we struggled to break down Millwall in the most crucial part, which is in their goal.

“One of Millwall’s strengths is their set-pieces. They had seven opportunities today and six of them were from set-pieces.

“They had one shot that led to the corner that then led to the goal. They are extremely good at that.

“Cooper is a threat in both boxes, as we knew, and we had prepared as best we could. But that was the difference today.”

Gilkes, deputising for interim manager Paul Ince at the post-match press conference, added: “It just didn’t go right for us today.

“Some of the chances that we had, we didn’t take advantage of. But I’m sure that there will be games coming up when we will take advantage of them.

“We needed that little bit of detail in the final third. In the end, we just didn’t have enough to open them up.

“To be fair, though, Millwall are a defensively very good side. They’re very consistent in what they do and very hard to break down.”