Mee set to bounce back after Millwall draw blow

The Clarets were denied all three points at home to Millwall on Saturday, by a combination of eccentric officiating and sloppy defending.

Junior Stanislas saw a goal to make it 3-1 chalked off for the latest offside decision imaginable, before Darius Henderson snatched a stoppage-time equaliser for the Lions.

Had the Clarets held on, they would have gone into tonight’s game in 10th, but as it is, they slid to 15th, and Mee – who scored his first senior goal to make it 1-1 on Saturday – said: “Hopefully we can get a reaction to this setback.

“You’ve got to use that frustration in the right way. We’ll be ready for the next game

“We dropped off a bit and Millwall had chances to get a goal, which we were disappointed with.

“We didn’t react in the right way, but on another day it would have been 3-1 and game over.

“If someone scores in stoppage time it’s always two points dropped, but we’ll look ahead and on to the next game.

“We said in the changing room, we could have won the game, and we could have lost it in the end, but it’s one of those and we go on to Sheffield Wednesday now.

“We can’t start like we did against Millwall, with a sloppy goal, but we reacted well.”

Howe’s men are still seeking back-to-back wins this term, something Mee is determined to put right in a bid to climb towards the top end of the Championship.

“We want to push up there and be around the play-offs, and see how far we can get,” he said. “It’s a long season, we’re eight games in and we’ve got positives to take.

“It’s an incredible league, anyone can beat anyone, we’ve got to get a bit of consistency and we’ll be up there.”

Mee, pictured right, has set his sights on a prolonged run in Eddie Howe’s starting XI after a man-of-the-match performance against Millwall.

The 23-year-old, a former Manchester City trainee, cancelled out Liam Trotter’s opener when thumping home a header in the 19th minute, from a Junior Stanislas corner.

Mee, who made his first league start of the season in the 2-1 victory over Derby County at Pride Park, has made 58 professional outings and now he’s targetting many more.

“It was a bit frustrating not being in the team but I’m in the team now and I want to stay in the team so I’m going to do everything I can to impress the manager and hopefully keep my place in the side,” said Mee. “Coming into the team I’m using that in the right way to try to prove a point a little bit. We all need to go out there and prove a point.”

Mee became an internet sensation in February when making a tremendously brave point blank block to deny Reading’s Noel Hunt at the Madejski Stadium. And he was just as committed when contributing to the Clarets goal tally at the weekend.

“It was brilliant, it was a relief to get it, I was close last week,” Mee said. “I can’t really describe it. I was just happy to get the lads back into the game, which was the main thing. We all need to chip in, Charlie’s not going to score every week.

“When he doesn’t score we need to step up and set pieces are so important so it was great to get on the scoresheet. It was nice to be on the end of a football rather than something else. I like attacking the ball and hopefully I can get a couple more this season.”

Mee admits that the Clarets’ second half display lacked the endeavour and spark of the opening 45 minutes, but admits they were rocked by referee Craig Pawson’s inexplicable deletion of Stanislas’s strike after the hour.

“I was pleased with the first half performance, we could have had a handful of goals, and on another day we go and win that game four or five. In the second half I don’t think we came out and performed like we did in the first half,” he said. “After their goal, we stepped it up and started to play some good football. We got ahead and the second half was disappointing. But on another day that goal stands at 3-1 and we go on to win the game.

“We were just a bit bemused by it. We’ve never seen anything like that before. We were celebrating for about a minute and all of a sudden the referee’s gone over to the linesman and given an offside. It was a bit ridiculous to be honest.”

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