Millwall’s marathon is nearly completed – Wigan match will tell us plenty about whether they can last the distance

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Have the ’Wall ‘hit the wall’? The Championship marathon only has three stages remaining and the prospect of finishing outside the top six, overtaken as the finishing line is clearly in sight, doesn’t really bear thinking about.

The good news, and every Millwall fan could do with some of that, is that their play-off prospects still appear relatively healthy when you look at the league table and final matches.

But the key question is how much Tuesday night’s loss to Birmingham City will have a knock-on effect, and we’ll have at least a partial answer after tomorrow’s trip to rock bottom Wigan Athletic.

What isn’t in dispute is that the Lions’ goals have dried up. They have not scored in five of their last six fixtures. They have had 95 attempts over that period – 21 and 22 of them in the Den defeats to Birmingham and Huddersfield respectively.

When Millwall are forced to chase a game, it doesn’t tend to end well.

I’ve mentioned it before this season – the first goal has so often been absolutely critical to the way the match plays out.

In the 14 games the Lions have lost – five of their last six defeats have been by a 1-0 scoreline – their opponents have scored first in 13 of them.

Contrast that with when Millwall have got ahead. Of their 18 wins, 16 of them have been after they scored the opener – the only exceptions being the home victories over Coventry City and West Bromwich Albion.

Millwall had two efforts on goal against Preston North End and scored from both of them, Tom Bradshaw and Zian Flemming taking their combined tally to 29 in the league. They efficiently and effectively saw out the result.

But in midweek it was the textbook way that so many sides have success against Millwall – strike on the break and then bunker down and withstand heavy artillery.

Lukas Jutkiewicz’s decider was sloppy. It was Rowett who brought the big striker to Birmingham in December 2016 and he produced a poacher’s finish.

Danny McNamara’s delayed attempt to close Reda Khadra allowed the Brighton loanee to show a clean pair of heels to the right-back before slipping the ball into the left of the penalty area.

Jutkiewicz looked too wide even before he took a heavy first touch, but his scuffed attempt took a slight deflection off the outstretched arms of George Long to roll into the net.

Without the keeper’s touch the ball would have fallen for one of the Millwall defenders racing back towards their own goal-line.

The Lions tried to respond.

Bradshaw was denied his 16th of the campaign by an instinctive save by substitute Birmingham keeper Neil Etheridge, arguably making amends for initially pushing Callum Styles’ low strike back out into a dangerous area in the 82nd minute.

There were other moments for the home team. Jake Cooper, who has won the most aerial duels in the Championship, headed a corner just wide of Etheridge’s left post although the former Charlton stopper might have had it covered anyway.

Millwall lost for just the third time in their last 17 home matches played on a Tuesday night – six wins and eight draws.

Their last 14 goals have been scored by only four players and Leeds loanee centre-back Charlie Cresswell, who bagged his fifth of the season in the 2-1 win over Swansea, has subsequently been ruled out after undergoing surgery on the fractured eye socket caused by the stray elbow of West Brom’s Daryl Dike.

Cresswell is the club’s third highest goalscorer with Voglsammer (three) in fourth. Fifth is Benik Afobe, who signed for Dubai’s Hatta Club in January. The last of the former Arsenal man’s two goals came on September 17.

If Millwall do miss out on extending their season then you wonder how much different things would have been if medical issues had not aborted their January move for Hibernian’s Kevin Nisbet.

Bradshaw has started 24 of the Lions’ last 25 league matches. He has played the full 90 minutes in 10 of those, averaging 79 minutes per match. For someone who covers so much ground, pressing from the front, that is always going to take some kind of toll.

One of Rowett’s comments after Preston was telling.

“It’s always hard to get that perfect balance,” he said, when discussing his players putting their bodies on the line to keep a clean sheet. “When you pick a team that are trustworthy and will do that, then sometimes you lose a little bit from the freedom going forward.

“If you pick a team that has the freedom going forward then we lose a little bit of what we are. We’re always looking for that balance, which isn’t ideal, but it wins us games.”

It’s a really valid point. And it is only when Millwall don’t do that – pick up a victory – that the clamour to be more offensive minded really increases in noise.

Millwall have the fourth best defensive record in the league but are 12th for goals scored. When you have got strengths, it is very difficult to move away from them.

STAR MAN
Neil Etheridge. No home player really stood out. The Birmingham keeper – subbed on for John Ruddy – made a couple of quality saves.

BEST MOMENT
Again, frugal pickings as it was an evening where the Lions failed to really spark. If Oliver Burke’s 68th-minute curler had crept in then it would have been a superb goal. But, like everything the hosts attempted, it fell just short in terms of perfect execution.