Just Back v Palace on ITV

silverlion

Well-known member
Staff member
A decent first half performance but they edged it in the second half.

It was a very bright start from us with some excellent pressing from the whole team. Benik and Tom looked a handful up front, Ojo had an excellent game in the 10 role, Danny was pushing up well down the right and we truly got into their faces and got them very rattled. They never looked comfortable on the ball, offered little threat and the crowd roared us on. After 17 minutes we got our breakthrough. The former England keeper dithered about with it in his own box, Tom just got a foot in and it fell to Benik who slotted it home. The Den went nuts. It was no more than we deserved.

Billy was having a storming game in the middle and was well supported by Saville who was running and covering everywhere. They never really came into it until around 35 minutes. They had more movement forward and a couple of half decent moves and a shot from Gallagher just got them back into it. We looked comfortable. They had to change their approach and attitude in the second half and Viera couldn't wait to get them into the dressing room to tell them so.

They came out with a different mindset and realised that our weakness was down their right. We knew they would come at us and it was a case of seeing whether we could weather the storm and burn them off. Sadly, we couldn't. A good movement across the field found Olisse one on one with Malone. I did think that Molly could have intercepted the pass out to the right but he chose to jockey Olisse on the wing. He cut inside, took a touch and curled a great shot across long and into the goal off the post for 1-1. We were up against it and their tails were in the air and they continued to press. We tried really hard to be more of a threat going forward but they were holding firm. Their giant Anderson was getting a bit het up and complaining that he was being fouled. The ref was firm and was having none of it.

They pressed forward having found our achilles heel on their right and Olisse had a good shot which bounced back off the post. Saville was crocked and replaced by Dutch. Olisse then supplied a peach of a cross for their second. The CF got between Hutch and Pearce and nodded it down and into the goal for 1-2. It was time for fresh legs and on came Bennett and off went Pearce as we moved to a back four. We looked more of a threat. Bennett had a decent shot which their keeper gathered without a problem. This was make or break time and off went Benik, Tom and Ojo and on came Boateng, Burey and Smith. A good cross by Burey almost found Boateng but it just went past his left foot. We huffed and puffed but we couldn't blow their house down even with five added minutes and they just edged it.

Long looked OK and could do little to keep out their two goals. Danny was MOM with a tireless display down the right. Hutch was solid and Pearce looked OK alongside Cooper. Molly got caught out for both their goals and this would be an afternoon he would want to forget. Billy was an action man in the middle and Saville tried hard to compliment him. Ojo played with a swagger and looked good at times on the ball. Other than score the opener Benik did not look a threat and the same could be said of Tom. Bennett looked energetic and aggressive as did Dutch. Boateng hardly got a touch, Burey had some moments and showed promise and Smith put a decent chance into the keeper's arms at the death.

There was no disgrace in our performance. They just had a little bit more of an edge in class in the second half and were worthy winners. Now it is time to concentrate on the league!
 
Well we had a go and gave a decent account of ourselves, Malone cant defend but we knew that anyway, Dutch not very good not sure why he was so highly rated at Birmingham and Cooper going backwards at an alarming rate, A couple of decent balls into the box near the end and Smith should have scored, but as always apart from that and their howler we never really looked like getting the goals to win the game. I feared we were going to get well beaten today but we werent so thats a positive. At least the moaners cant say we were were negative and boring today, just not good enough. We have been having a bit more of a go lately, unfortunately those performances are mostly leading to defeats though, so not sure what the answer is, be boring and get results I guess?
 
It was an ok game with a few positives and gave a reasonable account of ourselves,but we still don’t do enough as a team to test the opponent keeper who didn’t cover himself with glory.
Good to Burey & Boateng get some minutes.

Oh and me the boy witnessed some shenanigans out the back of the Dockers stand.😉
 
No disgrace at all to lose today, their winger was the difference. If we carry on playing like that we should make the playoffs but this is Millwall
The thing is GR has already indicated in his post match interview, that we need to get back to defending more
 
We weren't shit, just not as good as we would like to have been. Small margins.
Plus you can only ever play as well as the opposition allows you too.
Palace did just enough without being anything like brilliant.
We weren't shit but we weren't very good. The first half the team worked hard and well but the second, at no point did I feel like the team was up for It. The energy and desire wasn't there. There were no big tackles and there were too many headers and passes that had no Intent behind them. Our running off the ball seemed non existent and our desire to get forward was just as lacking.

Bear In mind this was an average Palace team who, although better ability wise, did not threaten much apart from when we allowed them too much time and space on the right for about 15 minutes. We never learnt from the first goal and we alowed them to play down that side and that cost us.

At no point In the second half did we look like scoring and at no point, apart from a lively 5 minutes on about the 70 minute mark, did we even look like we would take the game to them which Is what we needed to do.

I can't fault the first half and I thought the center mids put a shit In In the second, but our passing from the defenders to the attackers was poor and half hearted. Our movement was non existent and the desire to win didn't seem to me to be there. It was all rather tame and casual considering Palace were there for the taking. I can't say I was happy with It.
 
Poor excuse from him for not playing today, I thought.
Why does a woman even need a bloke there to give birth?
Let alone the one who caused the problem in the first place.
I never have understood that.
Especially when said bloke should be at work!
I said the same to my missus - and for some reason she gave me one of her withering looks - can’t for the life of me think what it was I said wrong? :grinning:
 
We weren't shit but we weren't very good. The first half the team worked hard and well but the second, at no point did I feel like the team was up for It. The energy and desire wasn't there. There were no big tackles and there were too many headers and passes that had no Intent behind them. Our running off the ball seemed non existent and our desire to get forward was just as lacking.

Bear In mind this was an average Palace team who, although better ability wise, did not threaten much apart from when we allowed them too much time and space on the right for about 15 minutes. We never learnt from the first goal and we alowed them to play down that side and that cost us.

At no point In the second half did we look like scoring and at no point, apart from a lively 5 minutes on about the 70 minute mark, did we even look like we would take the game to them which Is what we needed to do.

I can't fault the first half and I thought the center mids put a shit In In the second, but our passing from the defenders to the attackers was poor and half hearted. Our movement was non existent and the desire to win didn't seem to me to be there. It was all rather tame and casual considering Palace were there for the taking. I can't say I was happy with It.
This.

The only thing I would disagree with you about, is that you said we had a lively 5 minutes about the 70 minute mark! Felt we perked up with about 10 minutes to go, but by then it was too little, too late!

Did you not see an improvement in that last 10 minutes?