Watford boss Sean Dyche applauded his side's powers of concentration after they shrugged off the ongoing transfer speculation on deadline day to grab their first away win of 2012 at the New Den.
With the Bolton-bound Marvin Sordell removed from the match day squad at the 11th hour and talk of centre-back Adrian Mariappa moving on the Hornets could have been forgiven for taking their eye off the ball in their battle of the npower Championship strugglers.
But Dyche's men made light of the off-field drama with a goal in each half from strikers Troy Deeney and Joe Garner enough to stretch the gap to six points from the relegation zone.
Dyche said: "I'm delighted because we've had a very busy afternoon, I certainly have as manager, and preparation was hard for the players with news coming in all day long.
"But I'm very proud of them, they stayed focused and did exactly what we knew we had to do to get the result.
"Adrian (Mariappa) in particular was outstanding after the day that he has had, his phone hasn't stopped ringing with his friends and agents but it just shows what an immaculate professional he is.
"Whether Adrian goes is not my decision, I'd like to lock him up in a cupboard and take his phone off him but we'll see.
"We've had challenges before when good players have left this club and slowly but surely we have looked forward.
"And it's always tough at a club like Millwall but we went about our business with a real seriousness to go and keep climbing and we certainly did that."
Deeney's fine first-half strike was just reward for the Hornets who started much the brighter of the two sides and when Garner reacted quickest to tuck in the second just before the hour mark the game looked to done and dusted.
But the home side pressed late on and Darius Henderson had already wasted a free header when his stoppage-time penalty was well saved by Scott Loach to preserve his clean sheet.
Millwall boss Kenny Jackett said: "That was a flat game for a home side, we just didn't take the game to them and didn't do enough.
"It was always going to be tight but we conceded two poor goals and that has cost us. Troy Deeney was a handful for our two centre halves all night.
"When we did have opportunities we couldn't take them because we had a lot of the ball in the second half and huffed and puffed with not much to show from it.
"But credit to Watford's back four, I thought they played really well and defended everything we threw at them but it's a concern that we couldn't beat a man and create a bit more.
"When we go 1-0 behind our players can lack some confidence and that certainly happened in this game so we will have to work on that."
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