Millwall 1 Fleetwood 0, League One, Game 43, 19/4/16, att: 7,865 (away 83)

TUESDAY NIGHT AND A BIT MORE DRAMA

Promotion chasing but less than 8000, Fleetwood's 83 is our lowest Den away gate for many a season

I was looking forward to this and more so after the defeat at Coventry. I fancied us to beat Fleetwood and I wasn't disappointed but the way the game panned out was ugly but this time in the season a win ugly will do just fine. The first half was poor and well below par on what we would expect for a Millwall side in the play-off mix. Lee Gregory started this game after being on the bench against Coventry and also Jimmy Abdou was back in his usual spot after Shaun Williams red card. Lee Gregory had a early moment but was millimetres away from getting on the end of a cross from Steve Morison and not much more happened after that. Fleetwood are a gritty side and hit the bar and a few minutes after that Mark Beever's had to defend stoutly in the box  " yes, I know it looked liked a penalty but the ref didn't give it so it's not. Fleetwood still have a real risk of being relegated and are giving it ago to stay up, this was their first defeat in six games I do believe.

Lee Gregory was subbed at half time and the injury that he has been carrying for a good few games now appears to need a bit more care and attention and with three more games to go I am wondering what sort of impact he can make to see us over the play-off line. Hopefully we have still a desire on he 2nd automatic promotion spot. Jamie Philpot come on for Gregory and it was his ball to Morison that gave us the only goal of the game.

 GOAL: Steve Morison 52 minutes

What a well crafted goal and a type of quality that can only be scored by somebody who knows what they are doing. Jamie Philpot provided the header and Steve Morison scored. They are calling Morison's goal a lob, calling it a lob downgrades the skill it took to beat the Fleetwood keeper on the angle. It was a master class in finishing and well worthy of his 17th goal of the season. Chris Taylor nearly had a goal but he went wide with a header which was set up by Morison not long after he scored. Morison was subbed on 70 minutes with a hamstring tweak and Fred Onyedinma took his place. Now it got nervous with Fleetwood pressing and making a go of it and we more or less give up on increasing our lead and we dug in and held onto the final whistle.
A big shout for Jordan Archer who was unbeatable and the quality of his double save at the end was something else and a very nervous type of a joy to watch. Other results went our way apart from Barnsley and we move back into fourth spot. It wasn't fancy football but at this stage anything will do and a ugly three points is just as good any other three points. COYL


As it stands: 1) Wigan 81pts,  2) Burton 78pts,  3) Walsall 75pts,  4) Millwall 72pts,  5) Bradford 71pts,  6) Gillingham 69pts  7) Barnsley 69pts


Millwall: Archer, Romeo, Martin, Beevers, Webster, Abdou, Thompson, O'Brien (Upson 88m), Morison (Onyedinma 70m), Gregory (Philpot 46m), Taylor
subs not used, Forde, Edwards, Craig, Twardek

Goal: Morison

Fleetwood: Maxwell, McLaughlin, Jordan, Jonsson (Hunter 80m), Pond, Bell, Ryan, Burns, Grant (Cole 72m), Sarcevic, scougall (Ball 80m),
subs not used, Gogic, Forbes, Nilssson, Grant

Millwall 2 Doncaster 0. League One, Game 15, 27/10/15, att:8,294 (away 195)

Winning at home is becoming a habit as we climb the table with 24 points and are now just goal difference keeps us out of the play off spots

I thought we were going to thump this lot 5-0 but the 2-0 is dandy. That's another home win and we are a gnats whisker away from the play offs, but it's only game 15 so a long way to go yet. We were up and running early and  enjoyed a Steve Morison double to take a two goal lead after eight minutes on the clock and I would have put large on us banging in a few more but it wasn't to be as we missed some sitters and we lacked that edge  and the will to comprehensively beat this lot.  Our midfield seemed to be lacking especially when Doncaster were attacking and we gave them to much room by sitting deep and inviting them on. Talking of Doncaster they play the pulling shirt and tugging arms routine and the referee was as useless as was the lino's in spotting these spoiling tactics. Doncaster threatened mainly down their left-hand side and we need to deal with this better as Doncaster did threaten the Lions goal at times and if their finishing was somewhat better who knows, the score may have been a tad closer

Tuesday Night Crowd, Oh Stevie Stevie

At times we played like the away side as we sat deep and aloud the opposition to come on to us and then we counter attacked with numerous long balls that our front runners chased down and did produce chances but  could not improve on the the earlier two goals. Can I criticise allowing Doncaster to have a lot of possession  after we took a 2-0 lead? I think I can. The team were in command with just 8 minutes gone and they were 2-0 up, perhaps they thought they had done enough, after all they had recently played two tough away games and 'why waste energy" I would have liked them to have gone for the throat and won by a greater margin but three points is three points so not much grumble from me.

After reading Neil Harris the next day he admitted that we took our foot of the pedal after the two goals and he would have liked that Steve Morison scored another goal and took the match-ball home with in.

Millwall: Archer, Edwards, J.Martin, Craig, Beevers, Saville, Thompson, Ferguson (Webster 90+2)

O'Brien (L.Martin 86), Gregory (Onyedinma 69), Morison,

subs not used, Forde, Cummings, Powell, Pavey

Goals: Morison 5 and 8 mins

Doncaster: Stuckmann, Lund(Williams 77), Evina, McCullough, Butler, Wellens(Forrester 53), Tyson, Tylor-Sinclair, Coppinger, Stewart (N'Guessan 56), Middleton

subs not used, Marosi, Gobern, Keegan, Whitehouse

Bring on Bradford City this weekend