Three penalties, two of them put away and we miss the third
Shane Ferguson starts this game as he is now a contracted Millwall player as we sign him from Newcastle United. He has done very well while being on loan at the Den and it is a first class signing and good Millwall business. Added quality to the team and he fits right in.
Plenty going on in the Crewe box
300
Jimmy Abdou landed on "our shores" back in 2008 after we signed him from Plymouth on a free and today he was presented with a silver platter for the 300 games he has played for us. Incredible really, quiet bloke, small in size, not the most skilful of the players in the team but well liked among the Wall support because he always gives it all, runs for the 90 minutes and probably runs home after.
We should have won this game. We would have if Lee Gregory had not missed his 2nd penalty of the game. Take no notice of the false reports and take no notice of the Crewe manager questioning the referee awarding this second penalty that was a blatant hand ball by Crewe's Oliver Turton who played the ball deliberately with his right hand down by his side. I was directly in-line with this and had a good view from block 8 and well spotted the Lino.
Crewe did give us a game which we did expect and we had to work hard to try to win the game and putting the penalties aside we had chances but on the day we didn't lack effort but lacked that spark to bury the ball. We had the majority of the early play and we were putting the ball into the Crewe box with Lee Gregory and Aiden O'Brien having chances. Just before half time we should have been dancing in the isles as both Jed Wallace and Steve Morison missed decent chances.
Having the chances
It seems that we still like to make things hard for ourselves and went behind on 59 minutes when Jordan Archer conceded a penalty and for a scary moment I thought it maybe another red card. It wasn't and Archer picked the ball out of the back of the net. It didn't take long before we had a penalty of our own when Byron Webster was impeded going for a header and Gregory stroked it home. Jed Wallace had a great chance to give us the lead with just ten over ten minutes left on the clock he received the ball from Steve Morison but shot just over the bar. It looked like it could end up a draw but with just three minutes left on the clock we were awarded our second penalty but this time Gregory hit the post and that was that. I take the positive.....That's another game we didn't lose and it's 44 points. Something unusual happened with this game, we did not make a substitution.
Millwall: Archer, Cummings, Webster, Beevers, Ferguson, Wallace, Williams, Abdou, O'Brien, Gregory, Morison
subs not used, Forde, Nelson, Martin, Thompson, Upson, Onyedinma, Marquis
Goal: Gregory (pen 65m)
______
Crewe: Garrett, Turton, Guthrie, Nugent, Haber, Ihman Cooper (Ng 90), Fox, Jones, Ajayi, Bakayogo (Seager 80),
subs not used, Richards, Saunders, Ballie, Ainley, Howell
Goal: Ihman (pen 59m)
Millwall: Archer, Cummings, Webster, Beevers, Ferguson, Wallace, Williams, Abdou, O'Brien, Gregory, Morison
subs not used, Forde, Nelson, Martin, Thompson, Upson, Onyedinma, Marquis
Goal: Gregory (pen 65m)
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Crewe: Garrett, Turton, Guthrie, Nugent, Haber, Ihman Cooper (Ng 90), Fox, Jones, Ajayi, Bakayogo (Seager 80),
subs not used, Richards, Saunders, Ballie, Ainley, Howell
Goal: Ihman (pen 59m)
