AFC Bournemouth 1 Millwall 1 – Matt Smith nets with first touch as Lions earn point

Matt Smith scored with his first touch after being brought off the bench to earn Millwall a deserved point from their trip to AFC Bournemouth.

Having fallen behind to Dominic Solanke’s goal in first-half stoppage time, the Lions looked to be leaving the South Coast empty-handed despite a dominant performance.

But, moments after entering the field as part of a triple substitution, Smith was on hand to prod in a 79th-minute leveller and secure a point at the end of a showing that might well have warranted all three.

Gary Rowett had made six changes to the side that started the previous league game, with Danny McNamara – who impressed on his debut in Saturday’s FA Cup win at Boreham Wood – making his first Championship appearance.

Having held their own in a breathless opening quarter, the Lions should have taken the lead when Ryan Woods turned smartly before setting Jed Wallace clear of the Cherries defence – only for him to be denied one-on-one by the legs of goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.

Just as the Lions looked to be heading into the break frustrated not to be in front, they found themselves behind as Junior Stanislas slotted in Solanke to fire beyond Bialkowski at his near post in first-half stoppage time.

Despite the sucker-punch goal, Millwall continued to dominate after the restart and were agonisingly close to finding a leveller when Ken Zohore’s low free-kick came back off the post.

In what looked like a last roll of the dice, Rowett was spurred into a triple substitution with 12 minutes remaining – and one of those changes paid off within seconds, as Shaun Hutchinson’s long free-kick was flicked on by Jake Cooper for the newly-introduced Smith to poke home.