Millwall 2-3 Middlesbrough (and the referee and lino)

Millwall's 6 game winning home league run came to a crashing halt at The Den on Saturday, amid some shocking refereeing decisions which encited some crowd trouble as Middlesbrough beat The Lions 3-2.

Man of the Match Neil Harris bagged his first league goal of the season to give Millwall a deserved lead, but 2 quick-fire goals after the break from the visitors brought Boro back from the brink. Lions debutant Hamuer Buoazza's stunning free-kick levelled things with 10 minutes left on the clock, but ex Reading forward Leeroy Lita nodded home with 5 to go to snatch all 3 points for the Boro.

With Millwall's home form before Saturday the best the Championship had seen all season (not a biased opinion, actual fact), it looked a cert that the South Londoners would take all 3 points from this game. And the opening exchanges leaned towards those tendencies, though Boro's central midfield pairing of Charlton old boy Nicky Bailey and Boro stalwart Julio Arca found space in the middle of the park early on, slipping Lita into dangerous positions on a couple of occasions but Lita was wasteful with both.

James Henry, who has found his form again after a indifferent christmas, was found by Liam trotter 25 yards from goal. The right winger curled the ball first time and the ball dipped and swerved like a hottie in a R&B music video before crashing off the crossbar.

Then Millwall turned the heat up and found themselves in the lead with a bit of route 1 football. Lita had been judged offside and from the resulting freekick Forde played a long ball towards the edge of the boro 18. Steve Morison rose the highest to flick the ball on towards goal and Harris, as he does so often, read the flight of the ball, beat the oncoming defender to it and volleyed into the corner from 8 yards out.

From that point on, Millwall started to dominate the game, but could not find that killer 2nd goal. Henry blazed just over from the edge of the box, Morison had a snap shot "handled" away by a Boro defender, no penalty, obviously. 'Wall piled on the pressure, corner after corner, but Boro held firm. And had chances of their own using the counter attack to their advantage. Arca found space in the middle of the park and slipped Lita through with a tidy pass. Forde came rushing out of the goal and Lita slipped round him, but his tough took him too far wide. His shot was blocked well on the line by a 'Wall defender and the ball cleared for safety.

Half time was greeted with cheers from the home section and as news that Norwich and leeds were drawing, talk of gaining 2 points on two possible play-off rivals started circulating round the home stands.

And as 'wall came out for the 2nd half you could feel that if we got the 2nd goal, we could kill of Boro, but not to give them an inch aas they always looked a threat going forward. And 10 minutes after the break, cue Messr Sarginson (the Referee). Arca went down easily 25 yards from goal and though he practically fell on the refs toes, the man in black (or yellow) gave the free-kick anyway. Up stepped Ronald McDonald (well, not really Ronald, but I dont know his first name) and you cannot take away the quality of the freekick. He lifted it up and over the wall before it dipped enough to beat the outstretched Forde and bulge the net.

5 minutes later and it was 2-1 to the visitors. Millwall were still reeling from the bad free-kick decision and the fact that we had not converted our dominance on the game, when Boro got the ball wide to substiture Zememma who beat two Lion's players before whipping in a good ball to McMahon, who, from where I was sitting (south Upper) had made his run from an offside position, to slot the ball home and give the visitors the lead.

What fallowed the goal was confirmation to me that the goal-scorer was indeed offside. Fans from the East Lower piled to the front of the stand to where the Lino was and started telling him in no uncertain terms what they thought of him and trying to explain the offside rule to him. The lino didnt agree with their opinion so called the referee over to consult him. The referee looked as though he didnt want to involved so just told the lino to go back to the side line, next to where the blood-baying, baby-eating Millwall fans were waiting for him. Before long stewards and police were tangling with the fans in the bottom tier and a few missiles were being launched from the east Upper towards both the police and the linesman. Again the linesman called the referee over and told him of the new developments in the name-calling and possibly asked the ref if he could take a sip from one of the carslberg bottles.

enough of the handbags and back to the match...

From then on, the Millwall players were chasing down the ball, and very hot headed. the game needed to calm down as you could see that Middlesbrough would take us apart if we didnt regain composure. the ball went out for a goal kick to boro and as the keeper was lining up a goal kick, a bottle was thrown towards him from the South Lower, though missing by at least 10 foot. The keeper then showed the ref the plastic bottle before the latter attempted to take the players off.

Both managers then talked to the ref and persuaded him to keep the players on the pitch.

when play restarted, Wall had a fire in their belly and attacked with everything. Bouazza was introduced with 25 minutes left on the clock and it took the Algerian 15 minutes to make his mark on the game. 'Wall won a free-kick 25-30 yards out and I can remember Bouazza placing the ball on the deck and meaning business. I turned to my mate and said "for ****s sake, there is no point in hitting it from there, dink it into the box". Buoazza then lined it up before spanking it over the wall and into the top right hand corner to send The Den into chaos (in a good way).

And then it was backs against the wall for Boro again as Millwall pushed for the winner. And almost had it on 81 minutes when Buoazza collected the ball on the edge of the box on the right. He dropped his shoulder and burst into the box and before running it out of play, chipped it square into centre of the area. Harris met the ball with a deft header and brought a top class save from the Boro stopper.

From that attack, Boro got the ball, sprayed it out wide to the tricky super sub Zememma who whipped in a peach of a cross. Lita came bundling in and met the ball perfectly to head the northern visitors back in front. All day Boro looked dangerous on the counter attack and they sprung it well.

After that sucker punch The Lions piled forward in hope that the ball would drop nicely for them. Skipper Paul Robinson stayed up as a extra striker hoping to flick something on or smash anything that dropped his way. The ball was bouncing around the edge of the Boro box but would not fall kindly for the Lions and you could see that winning home run slipping from their grasp.

In injury time (6 minutes of it) Millwall had a good shout for a penalty waved away (would you expect anything from the ref?) as substitute Lisbie, brought on for Harris to try and nick his 3rd injury time goal in as many games, tumbled from a challenge from behind.

Boro held out and collected all 3 points. The Millwall players at the end of the game collapsed on the floor as they had given it all, and was loudly applauded for the effort and commitment with which they played with.

A fantastic game of football, shame we lost it, but with performances like that until the end of the season, along with the injuries coming back, we should be easily placed within the top 10.

 

Excellent Micky!

 

Superb report. Will this be a regular column now, you got my vote

 

Morning all.

Have to agree with Showoff.



Now that’s what I call a match report not like the biased s**t you see in the national rags.