2010-11 Match Reports CCFC v MILLWALL

25.9.2010

CCFC 2 v 1 MILLWALL

Well here’s something you won’t hear very often – ‘You’ve got to feel sorry for Millwall!’

Having played for 50 minutes with 10 men, and playing with great pride, the Lions finally succumbed in the 89^th minute to Keogh’s headed winner to give City a much-needed 3 points after successive defeats on the road last week.

The pre-match banter in the walk up to the game centered on how many we would put past Millwall’s dodgy defence after their 1-6 mauling by Watford last week (bizarrely, three of us claimed to have had premonitions by way of vivid dreams that we would win variously 1,2, or 3-0. ‘What a bunch of middle-aged saddos’ I hear you say, to which the only response is ‘fair cop’) and doubts about the suggestion that the assorted Bushwhackers and F Troop hooligans had really reformed since the heady days of the Inter-City trashings and stadia seat redistribution of the 70’s and 80’s. 

Extra security was in evidence as we were asked to confirm our ID before taking our seats ‘in case you’re Millwall fans’. ‘Gor blimey Guv, strike a light, would you Adam ‘n’ Eve it’ I says, ‘Just let us up the old apples ‘n’ pears so I can get a butchers.’

The teams were announced confirming that yet again we were missing Bellamy, Drinkwater, Olifinjana and Chopra. Surprisingly, Heaton was selected ahead of Marshall, utility man Blake slotted into midfield and Keogh started upfront with Bothroyd, the apparently still-not-fully-fit Koumas warming the bench.

We started brightly enough but 10 minutes in the worryingly inconsistent Gypes mistimed an intervention to set their winger free to skate past the worryingly completely-out-of-sorts Naylor (who had a real stinker) and send a low skiddy cross behind the retreating defence for Barron to slot past Heaton for the lead. O-1.

Millwall were now playing with confidence and it was against the run of play that JB levelled after a bit of ping-pong in the Millwall defence. 1-1after 24 minutes. The rest of the half was hugely entertaining, not from a footballing purist’s point of view as neither side proved capable of asserting dominance, but the game swung from end to end until on 40 minutes the incident that turned the game in our favour. Right in front of us Millwall’s Trotter lunged at Blake shin-high with studs akimbo giving the Ref no option other than to show him the red card – Wot a plonker. Trotter left for a half-time dressing down and a pot of jellied eels as the drama continued on the pitch and things were about to get worse for the Cocker-nees.

Whitts was scythed down in the box and stepped up to take the resultant penalty to surely send us to half time heaven. Forde (ex-City) saved with a full length dive to frustrate but surely we would make our advantage count in the second half.

Half-time entertainment included Bill Bailey’s wonderful ‘Cockney Medley’ and a pitch-side marriage proposal which Half-Time Wayne over-ran, delaying the restart.

Considering Millwall’s recent form it wasn’t unreasonable to think that we might just sit back and enjoy the second half slaughter. It was not to be. They hustled and harried and tied down midfield, starving our wingers of any meaningful service and gave us cause for concern going forward with Lisbie in particular running the woeful Naylor ragged. Too many players were not performing and with our ‘stars’ waiting in the wings ready to replace their under-performing understudies, Tuesday’s game against Palace will surely see more than a few changes. On the hour Koumas replaced the ineffective McPhail, Rae later came on for Blake but we lacked any cutting edge and although Millwall were tiring, the match seemed destined for a hugely disappointing draw. Millwall however have apparently conceded more goals than any other team in the last 15 minutes and it was with great relief that Keogh rescued the game on 90 minutes with a deft glancing header over Forde. 2-1.

Apparently we hadn’t beaten Millwall for 27 years (a fairly meaningless stat – how many times have we played them since 1983?! We probably haven’t beaten Accrington Stanley or Man Utd for at least as long...)

23,000 were present including 1,000 East End geezers who are probably even now rearranging the M4 service station furniture, bemoaning their luck and the fact that ‘No-one likes us and we don’t care’. D’you know what? We don’t care.