I have to say, this was a very tedious and dull game; however, without doubt, it was all down to the new signings settling into the squad and the two week break we had, due to being knocked out of the FA Cup by Birmingham. Nonetheless, it took one great moment of quality very early on, that we have been missing recently, which allowed us to hang on. I won’t dwell on this game too long as it was uneventful to say the least.
Undoubtedly, we have done the best transfer business in the league, seeing seven new faces coming into the squad and a complete clear out of players who were spending most of their time sitting on the bench. I do think we let go of one potential player, Allayhar Sayyadmanesh, as he has shown the most quality when we have seen him come on. But, he certainly was not going to be seen on the pitch again after we brought in two class wingers Abdülkadir Ömür and Anass Zaroury, alongside: Ivor Pandur, a goalkeeper; Ryan Giles, a left-back and Noah Ohio, a striker. Plus, Philogene was back.
Thus, Rosenior made three changes to the starting eleven: Ryan Giles, Anass Zaroury and Jaden Philogene came in for Jason Lokilo, who is out on loan, Matty Jacob and Greg Docherty. That meant, in a 4-2-3-1 formation, we lined up as follows: Ryan Allsop, in goal; Ryan Giles, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Lewie Coyle holding the fort; Tyler Morton and Regan Slater just below them; Jaden Philogene and Anass Zaroury on the flanks; Ozan Tufan up-front and Fabio Carvalho just behind him. I never thought I would see Morton, Carvalho, Philogene and Zaroury in a tiger’s shirt; it’s good to know we have some decent owners.
From the off, we looked the more controlled and energetic side and it did not take long for Anass Zaroury and Philogene to show we have been needing these players; in the 5th minute, Zaroury had the ball on the left flank and he was able to let rip on the edge of the box, which struck the bar and came back out for Philogene to slot it in. That mattered and the celebration from Rosenior, who jumped up and down towards the West stand, backed that up.
Then, we had another chance to double our lead, when not long after this Carvalho found himself in a great position in the box; some great play from the back allowed Giles, with a pocket of space on the left flank, to pass to Tufan, who neatly left it for an onrushing Carvalho who dribbled into the box, however, his shot was blocked and went out for a corner, which nothing came from.
For the rest of the half, it was us who dominated and it felt very comfortable as Millwall seemed to want to sit back and give us the opportunity to keep the ball–a very unusual style of play from The Lions. We had eight shots, with one on target, to their zero; 66% of the possession compared with their 34% and an expected goal rate of 0.35 to their 0.
The second half was slightly better from the away team and slightly worse from us. It seemed that we ran out of steam and were showing that our players were still trying to gel. However, it was us who had the first opportunity and our only shot on target of the half. Carvalho spotted a smart run into the box by Philogene who received the ball, cushioned it well and shot from the edge of the box, which was a tame shot and did not cause any concern for Sarkic, their keeper.
Afterwards, Millwall came out of their shell and had an amazing chance to draw level; De Norre spotted a run from Zion Fleming and threaded the ball towards him, before seeing Allsop off his line and attempting to chip the ball over him, which hit the roof of the net. I have seen one of those go in this season and thankfully it did not happen again.
Except for a late chance from Bradshaw in the last seconds, who ran on to a ball in the air and into the box, before striking at Allsop, which fell into his hands, we were able to park the bus and hold on to those vital three points.
I was not too impressed with the performance due to the amount of passing we do and the stages when we revert backwards after winning the ball back instead of quickly releasing it to the players making runs. On the contrary, we were pressing more and getting into some decent positions, which will eventually turn into goal-scoring opportunities. We just need to give our newcomers some time to adapt; if we do that, we will have a promising end to the season.
Those three points and Coventry losing puts us back into the playoffs with a two point advantage. But, if Sunderland win on Sunday, we will be leapfrogged and put into seventh. Not to worry, as we have three great chances at securing a spot in the top six as our next three games are relatively easy: Swansea (home), Rotherham (away), which I will be going to, and Huddersfield (away), which I will also be travelling to. All of these teams are in the bottom half of the table, however, it would be just like us to lose. Let’s hope that isn’t our fate.
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