Can’t really say we’d been waiting for this one for years as it would have been far preferable for us to get back to the Championship and find that Millwall had gone down to replace us. But that aside, this was obviously a big one, for us especially. In prosaic terms a win and we would be left with two wins, a draw and two defeats from the first five games, an entirely acceptable return given the tough fixtures; obviously lose or draw and the picture would be different. Most of all, however, we simply craved a win, in whatever fashion, to end a very unwanted series and to start to reverse a truly dire record against them.
And we came close, so very close. We led from the 40th minute to the 86th and until Ramsay’s sending off on 74 minutes had looked likely to be able to see out the game, perhaps nick a second. That said we were already tiring and Millwall would have thrown everything at us in any event and always carried a threat with their height advantage. So nobody should be laying the blame on Ramsay, but no doubt his dismissal changed the nature of the contest. Although we were deservedly ahead and, despite having less possession than them had clearly the better of things in a game of very few actual chances, you have to admit that if the game had gone on another 10 minutes we would probably have lost it. So we can claim the moral high ground (never difficult against them) but not all the points.
The team showed one change from QPR, with Kelman starting up front ahead of Leaburn, who moved to the bench. Presumably Jones the Boss was impressed with what he saw on the training ground and had a plan in mind, which was fair enough. The assumption was always that Leaburn would be introduced sooner or later (with obvious thoughts before the game of him coming on to score the winner, as his father had scored in our previous league win against them). On the bench he was joined by loan signing Bree, with Mwamba missing out (and with Anderson still serving his suspension).
Through the first half we looked the brighter of the sides with the greater threat, especially with Campbell lively and clearly having the beating of his marker for pace and with Apter promising on the other flank. Millwall understandably looked to exploit him defensively but only managed to get their bigger guy on that side past him once or twice.
What chances there were fell to us, especially in the build-up to the goal. On 35 minutes a Kelman cross was knocked out to Apter but his shot was blocked, then Apter worked a good position but put in a poor shot when there seemed to be other options. On 38 minutes Apter opted to cut inside, got a little lucky with the ball and avoided a challenge, and put in a shot. This one took a wicked deflection and looped up and over their keeper, not quite dipping in time to go into the next but hitting the crossbar.
No matter. From the resulting corner Coventry sent the ball in and their keeper punched it away but only to the edge of the area where Carey was positioned. He controlled it well with a first touch, then sent in a hard low shot. I’d guess more often than not it would have been blocked, but with a Charlton player in the mix letting it go it went through everyone and into the net. Cue pandemonium, at The Valley and various other places. As usual Steve Brown in the CATV commentary box (thanks to VPN - and no thanks to Sky - I actually got to watch this game) had called it right. He pointed out that high balls into their area we were always going to be second-favourite to win and that we needed to be alert to benefit from the second ball. Carey was.
We saw out the rest of the half with no alarms and although the stats at the break showed they had enjoyed 54% possession, the telling one was that they have no efforts on target (just before the break their centre-half might have done better with a header from a corner). All we had to do was repeat that in the second.
The second half continued in the same vein, the only difference was that the ref did start taking his card out of his pocket. On 53 minutes a Millwall player was given a yellow for taking out Campbell, then on 54 a Millwall guy on their left was brought down by a combination of Coventry and Ramsay. The ref decided the latter had got there first and he was given the yellow. Might have gone the other way, which would have been significant as it turned out. And on 63 minutes Jones went into the book for a late tackle.
In between, Jones the Boss made a couple of quite early changes with Leaburn replacing Kelman, who had a decent game and was instrumental in stretching them, and Bree on for Apter, presumably to tighten up defensively on our right side. And for a spell we threatened to get the second which surely would have been decisive. On 66 minutes Carey was played in on the left side in the penalty area and his shot-come-cross was palmed out by their keeper, but not into Leaburn’s path, then just after Leaburn had the ball inside their area with his back to goal but his shot on the turn was smothered.
After that Millwall did have a couple of shots blocked and our defending was starting to look a little desperate. And on 73 minutes the game turned. A ball forward down their left side and Ramsay put in an excellent challenge to dispossess their guy. Unfortunately the ball didn’t go out of play and that guy was the first to get up to collect it. He moved inside and Ramsay, perhaps still a little disorientated, put in a sliding tackle from the side. He didn’t get the ball and everyone watching, and Ramsay himself, knew what was coming next. Second yellow and off, with no cause for complaint (other than that the ref might have booked Coventry instead of Ramsay first time around).
Millwall’s play had been patient (but largely predictable) before and now with the extra man they were able to pin us back. We had around 20 minutes to hold out and we did for 14 of them. We even had a breakaway chance as Leaburn did well to hold the ball around the halfway line and poked it forward for Campbell to run through in the clear. On his own with defenders converging he had little option but to take on the shot from outside the box and sent it over the bar.
Millwall thought they had their equaliser on 81 minutes as their substitute hammered a loose ball into the net, but he had clearly used his hand to control it. But they did get it on 87 minutes, after Burke had replaced Campbell. They advanced again down their left and a ball inside picked out a guy with a well-timed run forward. His shot was saved by Kaminski but crucially this parry dropped to that same sub, who sent it back into the net.
With five minutes of stoppage time it added up to eight minutes to see out and we managed to do that to get at least something out of the game. Not the historic victory we hoped for and which had for so long been on the cards, but at least a point. We take it and move on.
I’d only add that I thought Jones the Boss might have used more substitutes to bring on fresh legs in the closing stages, most obviously Olaofe or Rankin-Costello. There were some very tired players out there in the final 20 minutes as once again each had given his all. And a rare one, to say that I thought the ref had a very good game. He made no obviously bad calls, was consistent in what he allowed (and he did let some go, including some challenges on Jones which should have been penalised) and did not allow, and seemed in control throughout. Just wish he’d booked Coventry instead of Ramsay.
