FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.27: MILLWALL AWAY

Over their previous nine games Millwall had collected just seven points. Exactly the same as us. There were only 14 goals in those games, Millwall scoring six and letting in eight. Only once did a side score more than once. That was Norwich getting two on Boxing Day.

Such score lines reflect a dour image and that fits with what we saw at the Kassam in our 1-1 draw on 30th November.

Leeds have only lost two away games all season and one of those was at the New Den. No surprise that the score was 1-0. The Lions have played 12 home games to date. Goals for 14, goals against nine.    

We on the other hand over those last nine games witnessed 31 goals entering the net. Unfortunately only nine were ours with 22 getting beyond Jamie Cumming.

Millwall have an even newer manager than we do, with the announcement that Alex Neill had been recruited only coming on 30 December. So no time to change their approach. Not going to be a goal fest is it?

MILLWALL 0 OXFORD UNITED 1

Ahead of this I’d commented (and I have witnesses) 1. That the 5/1 odds on an Oxford win that were available for a while were very tempting. 2. I was very much expecting us to get at least a draw. 3. I would have been very very disappointed if we were to lose. That’s very optimistic for me but I’ll confess I wasn’t feeling quite so hopeful by half time.

A one o’clock kick-off meant no lie in but, as I’d taken it very easy seeing the New Year in, that was no problem for me. Strange though, walking to the station with morning not yet fully broken and many houses still in darkness.

Someone had left this behind on a previous visit

On the first day of every year much of the country is shut down, but pleasingly there were plenty of trains to our capital city. We were in the Old King’s Head in Borough High Street just gone 10 o’clock. Once the owner/landlord, a Kiwi who has been there 26 years, had sussed out that we were decent types (yes, seriously) we were allowed in. First customers of the day. Too early for me for beer but the Jameson was too tempting. I know at least one person who drinks a pint faster than I drink a single whisky. Good chat with the New Zealander. He gets very little trouble from football fans although has had to close when the place has just got too full. Seems the biggest issue is with youngsters with false ID trying to get served – and there was me thinking the kids of today had no interest in alcohol.

After about 20 minutes the bar began to slowly fill up with Oxford fan after Oxford fan. So many faces I knew. There were some I didn’t. Although there wasn’t the slightest hint of trouble I wondered if they were Millwall. They weren’t, I saw them in the away section.

The 1526 we had in attendance was a good turnout considering kick-off time, the opposition and it being hangover day for some. It’s no time at all to get from London Bridge to the ground. About four minutes on the train to South Bermondsey and then about the same again to walk to the away end with police instructing which route to take.

Despite this being an “all ticket game” (aren’t they all?) pay on the day was apparently available. We had some in the lower tier of the North Stand but most were in the upper which was rammed. As per, no chance of finding the seat allocated on the ticket. It was even difficult to find any seat to stand in front of. I’d guess 95% stood throughout and if you didn’t you wouldn’t have seen any of the action. I managed to get a space right at the top of the stairs at the back of section 23. Our crowd were vocal and very noisy throughout. Home fans on the other hand seemed strangely muted and very lacking in numbers although the figures quoted show there were 13,438 of them present. There will of course be the usual caveat of non-attending season ticket holders. Why so little interest? Couldn’t be arsed because it was only Oxford? Not impressed with their new manager? Bored with the football they’ve been playing?

Although I’m one of them I’ll never fully understand what makes other supporters tick. Most of those around me were giving it some with the singing but there was no noticeable clapping and yells of encouragement for individual players when they’d done something that I thought merited this. To be fair though, that didn’t happen a lot in the first period. There were also one or two loud criticisms, which I thought unfair and unhelpful. It’s not as if we’re any longer on a losing streak when frustration was starting to get the better of more and more of us. But every club has fans like that who expect their team to play beautiful winning football every game. (See FV 24 – Leeds away and my referencing of ex-Millwall manager Neil Harris’s quotes)

I watch a lot of Championship football on Sky and it was evident that there was a lack of atmosphere in many grounds over the New Year. Grounds I would expect to be bouncing. They were not the most obliging of kick off times though. Another thing I’ve noticed is that the overall quality of the football played seems to have dipped a bit. Not so much free-flowing play. Still way above L1 standard but I’m not marvelling at other sides as I was earlier. Perhaps I’ve just got used to it all. Or maybe it’s that the deeper we get into winter, even these modern pitches have got heavier and also many clubs are without a significant number of influential players because of injuries. If these factors are levellers that’s fine by me.

In the first half Millwall weren’t so long ball L1 ish as they had been at the Kassam. Nowhere near the best the Championship has to offer but definitely the better side here. We offered very little going forward. Our two best players in that regard being Ruben Rodrigues and Przemyslaw Placheta. Both man of the match contenders but how do you compare them with the back line who had a very different job to do?

With Millwall’s marking we couldn’t get the ball out from the back. A tale we’ve got used to this season but thought we might have shaken off over the last two games. When we played it short we had nowhere to go and there were times when the “oh no we’re going to lose it here” feeling was back. When Jamie Cumming went long, either through choice or necessity, it went high to Greg Leigh. Our Jamaican international wins so many of these but, as I’ve said before, that just slightly delays us losing possession. As usual there was no-one in front of our full-back with Tyler Goodrham tucking inside. No attacking coming down that flank.

The hosts finishing wasn’t up to much. They weren’t very good at hitting the target and we were also getting blocks in which helped. Young Serbian Mihailo Ivanovic had an angled volley which Cumming saved well. Our goalkeeper’s contribution could easily be overlooked. A lot of shots are “straight at him”. True, but that’s because he is where he is supposed to be nearly all of the time. Having a keeper that can be trusted is a key building block.

Our best chance was a Rodrigues volley that went just wide. That was set up by good centre-forward play by Harris.

So it was all square at the break. Had we been fortuitous? Possibly. I thought Millwall had a pretty good penalty shout early on.

We had shown signs of marginal improvement as the end of the first 45 minutes approached.

When we re-emerged for part two without Elliott Moore my level of concern grew but turned out to be without merit. We were playing better with a bit more sharpness and purpose. The Lions went the other way.

We took the lead before the hour. There was some scrappy battling following a Leigh throw-in. We were now winning out much more in these situations. Harris did well under pressure in getting control and firing the ball away from the congestion to Placheta who was in space on the right wing. Now you’re talking. PP teased Joe Bryan with a step over before knocking the ball with the outside of his right foot and getting in a perfect cross. So difficult for a defender when they don’t know which way the attacker is going to go. RR had made his way into the penalty area and, from the edge of the six-yard box, got a centre-forward’s type header on the ball. Murray Wallace made a desperate attempt to keep it out but in off the bar it went much to our delight.

By now I’d moved more centrally and closer to the front of the stand where my mates had said there was some space. Still very packed though but I’d squeezed in. Everywhere was a squeeze. Unexpected celebrations it was which included trying not to fall over the seat in front.

Still a long time to go. Clean sheet needed if we didn’t get a second I felt and given we’d conceded in every away game this season I thought we almost certainly needed to get another. We didn’t but we won, so two firsts of the season. An away win and shutting out the home team.

Gary Rowett could not have had a better start obviously. Three wins from three. Goals scored six, goals conceded two. I’m not going to get carried away given the quality of the opposition in those three games and on another day it could have been a different result here. After Cumming had gone down low to beat away a free-kick from Romain Esse they were again appealing for a penalty. Not for me with George Saville going down much too easily although that could be put into the very occasional “I’ve seen them given” category. And then very close to the end it looked to me like a Millwall man had the freedom of our penalty area with enough time to really hurt us even if he was a little wide. A hopeless effort followed.

Yes, they weren’t very good but they’ve turned Leeds over there. Funny old game.

Reading comments from their fans on social media they really laid into their club. “Load of absolute shit we couldn’t score in a brothel. Going to be in a relegation battle playing like this”. “Don’t deserve jack shit from this game”. They absolutely laid into Bryan and reckon he’s on £32k a week. “Joe Bryan should never play for us again. Fucking useless c**t. (My asterisks not theirs) He is actually useless. Like tits on a bullock”. Poor bloke. They’re not a fan base you want on your back.

A lot of blame was being aimed towards the Director of Football Steve Gallen who they thought was all about playing young players to increase their value and sell them on to the detriment of creating a winning team.

This one I like “Who is this Rowett fella… just masterminded Oxford’s first away win in the championship since 1999 and 3 wins on the spin since taking over? Did we not have him on our potential candidate list”?

The more rivals in disarray the better. Disarray equals poor performances. Poor performances equals very few points. We no longer look in disarray.

The league table looks so much healthier now. Five points above the relegation zone in 18^th position and with a game in hand over the four teams immediately above us. Preston, the opposition on Saturday, are one of those teams. An extra three points would put us above all of them.

The best odds for relegation, which I seem to have become obsessed with, now read Argyle 1/9, Pompey 5/4, Oxford 13/8, Cardiff 2/1, Hull 5/2, QPR, Stoke & Luton 6/1, Derby 9/1 and PNE 12/1.

With the transfer window now open change could be afoot for many teams but there’s no time for root and branch surgery. I’m expecting one or two of ours to go out on loan if not on permanent deals.

Rowett seems to have settled on his preferred starting XI and has told the players that the shirt is theirs to lose. The starters have done well enough to merit retaining their place. The subs who have had a few minutes will have been carefully watched.

Siriki Dembele is some talent whose time will come. Injury held him back. Louie Sibley will be part of the future. Still relatively young and the natural replacement should either Cameron Brannagan or Will Vaulks become unavailable or lose form. Hidde ter Avest is full-back cover although more of a wing-back. He’ll still be around as will Idris El Mizouni. I think he’s a bit like RR. The other two who have come on as replacements under our new manager I’m just not sure about. Dane Scarlett has disappointed. Doesn’t look quick enough of foot or thought and doesn’t do anywhere near enough outside the penalty area. I can see him being sent back to Spurs. Matt Philips has also been a let-down recently. I thought he was dreadful here. Never got the pace of the game. Didn’t close down when we needed to keep the ball away from our half and put in one challenge that I can only describe as an air tackle.

Then there are those that we’ve not seen. Josh McEachran. I don’t think he’ll be here next season. Kyle Edwards. Wasn’t he just on a short term contract? Is he still with us? Jordan Thorniley, very much a forgotten man. Will Goodwin. Has a decision been made by whoever the manager may have been at the time that he just isn’t good enough or is he permanently injured?

There’s little doubt that we need another ready to go centre-half. A replacement for Ben Nelson, who has been a big loss. Same goes for the strike force. Need at least one and possibly two.

Decisions will be made. Work will have been going on behind the scenes. Full-backs? Will Joe Bennet be fit and will his name be added to the first team squad? Will the highly rated Jack Currie be recalled from Orient?

So many questions.

But forget those for now. At Deepdale I think we can pretty much guess what the team will be.