PHIL Parkinson praised Irons loan pair Reece Burke and Josh Cullen for putting the mettle into Wanderers’ draw at Millwall.

The West Ham youngsters played a central role in getting the Whites off the mark in the Championship with a point at The Den.

Filipe Morais cancelled out George Saville’s second-half strike with a fine free-kick but Parkinson gave special credit to Burke and Cullen for helping to secure a result.

“Young Reece showed great maturity out there,” he said. “He won’t want me telling you this but he was ill before the game and at half time but he had no hesitation at all about staying on the pitch.

“It’s not easy for West Ham players to come and play at Millwall but I thought both him and Josh Cullen did really well.

“He’s playing against two wily old foxes in Morison and Gregory who are pulling every trick in the book. At times they were clever drawing files.

“But when I met Reece again this summer I felt there was an obvious maturity in him and I have been really pleased with him.”

Cullen also impressed the Wanderers boss in his second start for the club.

“Josh has played in League One for the last 18 months and the pace is quicker but he adapted again and got better as the game wore on,” he said.

“He picked up a lot of pieces when the ball came back to him and served the wider centre-backs and full-backs.

“He has got that habit of always showing for the ball. We said that before the game that we’d need the bravery.”

Parkinson admits goal-scorer Morais may not yet be ready to start games after recovering from a knee injury but was pleased to see him come up with the goods after entering as a second-half substitute.

“Fil is not ready to be starting the game yet but he is capable of producing moments of quality,” he said.

“Chances were few and far between. It was a tight game and it started at 100 miles per hour, as we expected.

“We took the sting out of the game for periods of the first half and then in the second, did we start poorly? I don’t think we did, but it was a scrappy goal.

“In that instance all you can ask for is the response and we gave one.”