MILLWALL FC

1885---131st Anniversary year---2016 'We fear No Foe

Understood by those that matter

Sunday 17 January 2016

Millwall 3 Port Vale 1 (3-0 ht), League One, Game 26, 17-1-15, att: 7,773 9267) Sunday afternoon

40 POINTS AND JUST OUTSIDE THE PLAY-OFF'S BY ONE POINT

Jimmy Abdou starts his 300th game for Lions

It would be about now that we make our play if we are serious about getting straight back out of this league.
We have enough fire power to do it and a bit more consistency will bring results. I believe that's all that's missing from the side and if we sort that we should climb the table.

Fire power: Lee Gregory 13, Aiden O'Brien 10, Steve Morison 10 and a further 21 scored by a assortment of defenders and the midfield..There's not a big hitter who is leading the field but there is games left for all three that are in double figures to aim for the twenty mark.


Steve Morison battled with these two Vale defenders all game



The crowd was somewhat less for this game and I put it down to a few factors. Losing at home to Oxford Thursday night didn't help and Sunday afternoon may have had something to do with it. The away crowd was sparse and I won't mention the cold because after all we are Wall and cold wouldn't keep us away, would it? 
We stuck into Port Vale as soon as the whistle went and had them on the back foot as we pushed forward and probed around Vale's goal. Steve Morison had a early chance after five minutes when his shot went just the wrong side of the post. This Morison effort was possible due to support play from Lee Gregory and Aiden O'Brien and its always good to see this spearhead trio working well together. With 15 minutes on the clock Loan signing Jed Wallace put in a superb ball for Gregory who with a lot to do adjusted his shape and managed to send a looping header inside the far post, what a goal that was. After the gloom of Thursday night and the defeat by Oxford it was good to hear the Den back to it's noisy self as we celebrated a cracking opener. 


A goal and a couple of hoodies keeps out the chill of  South Bermondsey

Lee Gregory was to strike again after being awarded a penalty when he was clobbered in the box and after 34 minutes the Lions were 2-0 up. We could have added to our tally before the penalty and it was good to see the defence and midfield working a lot better than they did Thursday, perhaps this was due to the less amount of long balls going over the top. We were dominated the half and just before the whistle blew for half time Steve Morison pounced when another effort from Lee Gregory was deflected out to Morison who stroked the ball home. Could we add to our goal tally in the second half and improve on our goal difference, Time will tell.

Port Vale made two substitutions for the start of the second half and had a bit more zest, I presume they got a half-time rollicking"and scored after fifteen minutes.with a shot that Jordan Archer had no chance with.. We kept the opposition away from scoring for the rest of the game and had numerous chances our selves to add to the score. A solid home win and that's the way it should be.

Millwall: Archer, Cummings, Ferguson, Beevers, Webster, O'Brien (Marquis 88m), Williams, Abdou, Wallace (Upson 63m), Gregory (Onyedinma 87m), Morison
subs not used, Forde, Nelson, Martin, Thompson

Goals: Gregory 14m, 34m pen,  Morison 45

Port Vale: Alnwick, Purkiss, Dickinson, McGivern, Duffy, O'Conner, Foley (Hooper 55m), Daniel (Kelly 46m,), Brown, Moore (Dodds 55m), Letch-Smith
subs not used, Neal, Streete, Yates, Grant

Goals: Hooper 61m

Things are happy in this part of South London
Millwall 3 Port vale 1
Man City 4 Palace 0
Hull City 6 Charlton 0
I can't wait for work in the morning