Sixteen draws for Millwall – but latest at Luton Town can be viewed as a point gained after stoppage time drama

BY ALEX GRACE

Millwall collected their 16th draw of the season on Tuesday – but it will be one of the few Gary Rowett will have been happy with considering the dramatic way it came about.

The Lions looked down and out at Luton Town – heading to a first defeat in nine Championship games – before George Evans nodded home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to preserve his own unbeaten record since coming into the Millwall side at the start of this month.

Injuries really prevented boss Rowett from making wholesale changes after the 0-0 draw with Wycombe on Saturday. Tom Bradshaw and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson replacied Matt Smith and Mason Bennett, who both struggled to make an impact against the resilient Chairboys.

Ryan Tunnicliffe, perhaps with a point to prove against the club who released him in July 2019, pulled a shot wide in the opening stages.

Bradshaw has not had it easy since his Millwall career began, he picked up a season-ending knee injury at Brentford in 2018 and since then his career in SE16 is really yet to take off.

The Wales international scored eight goals in 45 Championship appearances last season and has four in this campaign. He had a great chance to add to that total on Tuesday night, Jed Wallace’s excellent challenge sent the former Barnsley striker through on goal but a heavy touch allowed Simon Sluga to come out and smother the ball before the striker could trouble him.

Luton took inspiration from Wycombe in matching up Millwall’s three centre-backs making this at times a very hard watch – both sides lined up 5-3-2 and cancelled each other out for the most part.

A lot of Millwall’s success comes down the wings, with the likes of Mahlon Romeo and Scott Malone getting forward and pumping balls into the box but this did not happen as much as usual.

It led to the midfield area getting overrun with Ryan Woods and Ben Thompson struggling at times to keep order in the middle of the park.

The hosts were looking threatening and Tunnicliffe’s cross fell nicely to Jordan Clark but his volley was not hit with much conviction and Bartosz Bialkowski was relatively untroubled.

Thompson went close twice before the break but his efforts were off target following some questionable Hatters defending.

Thompson has been in the wars in the last couple of matches. The midfielder was on the end of a nasty challenge from Birmingham’s Lukas Jutkiewicz last Wednesday.

It was the same again here, Tunnicliffe came in very late on the academy graduate and a yellow card seemed generous from referee Graham Scott.

Tunnicliffe added insult to injury around 10 minutes later when he played a crucial role in Luton’s goal.

It was his brilliant ball into the box that came the whole way through to Elijah Adebayo.

The former Walsall striker, a January signing, mishit his shot but it still crept past Bialkowski and into the bottom corner.

Rowett responded by introducing Smith and Bennett and changing shape to a 4-2-3-1, moving Evans into midfield.

Millwall are the only team in the Championship not to have conceded a headed goal in the league this season but that stat should have ended. Adebayo should have done better with his header and put the Hatters out of sight.

Jed Wallace curled an effort over the bar as the final 10 minutes approached. Bennett forced another save from Sluga before the keeper made a superb stop to keep out Wallace’s free-kick.

Just as all hope looked to have been lost, a ball into the box from Shaun Williams was headed on by Smith – such a potent impact sub – and Evans got up early to power his header past Sluga for his first goal since August 2017 when he was on Reading’s books.

Luton boss Nathan Jones was left fuming with the officials after six added minutes were signalled.

He vented his frustration on the sidelines when the fourth official’s board was held up.

Jones could not have an awful lot of complaints considering Sluga was booked for time-wasting over slow restarts and he made three substitutions in the final seven minutes to eat up the time.

Millwall have the longest active unbeaten run in the league – four wins and five draws. Any relegation fears look to have been put to bed with the gap now standing at 14 points to the bottom three.

The gap to the top six is one that is possible to bridge with the likes of Ken Zohore, Connor Mahoney, Ryan Leonard, Jake Cooper and Maikel Kieftenbeld all still to return.

Just a few weeks back it looked as if the season was just going to peter out but three successive wins in early February have injected fresh life into the remainder of the campaign.

It will certainly be a tall order to reach that top six, but we all know that Millwall love the role of the underdog and proving the doubters wrong.

The manner of the equaliser also shows why Millwall’s never-say-die attitude is so important.

Despite not creating an awful lot they kept going and they kept pumping balls into the box. There is always a chance of getting a reward – and Evans’ late header was exactly that.

STAR MAN
Alex Pearce. The Lions skipper stood up strong to everything thrown at him.

BEST MOMENT
George Evans’ late header.