Just when things looked to be going in the right direction a late goal hampers it all.
Alex Neil looked set for his first league win in charge of Millwall on Tuesday night when goals from Calum Scanlon and Casper De Norre gave his side a 2-0 lead against Cardiff City.
It was a great night for Scanlon who has just come back from a back fracture which saw him miss 20 games and have to return to Liverpool for treatment, however, he has come back and looked like a good attacking outlet for the Lions considering his natural position is a left back.
He came forward well, it took just 61 seconds of this contest for the first goal to arrive, Duncan Watmore’s charging run – we saw a similar one against Hull last Saturday, this time he got his head up and found Scanlon, he controlled the ball well got past his man and fired a powerful effort past Jak Alnwick in the Cardiff goal.
By the 20 minute mark, Lions fans were doing something they have not done since September, celebrating a second home goal in a game. The trickery of Ra’ees Bangura-Williams set up a third goal of the season for Casper De Norre. The brilliance of the former Tooting and Mitcham player was on show for everyone to see, he could become a key player for Millwall and what a time for him to emerge following Romain Esse’s departure to Crystal Palace.
However, the Lions have not won a game of football in the league since the 21st December – a 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers. They could have had the game wrapped up midway through the first half as Cardiff were offering very little not just going forward but in the contest.
But, as we know in football one moment can change everything.
Ryan Leonard and Jake Cooper seemed to get in each others way trying to make a simple clearance, in the end Cooper ended up playing the ball straight to Chris Willock who brought the Bluebirds back in the game with a fine effort that left Lucas Jensen with no chance.
A panicked moment from two senior players and suddenly it becomes a very different half-time team talk and atmosphere inside the stadium. All of a sudden Cardiff have something to play for in the second half.
In truth, the second half drifted. Neither side created an awful lot but the vital thing for Cardiff is that they hadn’t conceded a third goal and were still in the game. As time went on their confidence grew.
Millwall would be dealt a double injury blow with Leonard and then his replacement Danny McNamara forced off – the latter’s injury looking like a potential ACL – a season ending injury.
All of that increased the visitors hopes and that was boosted even further when seven minutes were added. Yousef Salech warned the Millwall defence in the 95th minute, a cross into the box, he was left free but failed to get his header on target.
Just when we thought it was done, Billy Mitchell’s clearance in midfield fell straight into City possession, the ball came into the box, Cooper lost his dual with Perry Ng and Salech got the better of Japhet Tanganga to fire past Lukas Jensen to deny the Lions all three points.
Image:Millwall FC