Millwall kicked off the game portion of Neil Harris’ first pre season in charge with a hard fought draw against Bromley at Hayes Lane last night.
Speaking ahead of the game Harris had made it clear it was all about players getting a run out and blowing the cobwebs away and being able to gain some fitness and sharpness in a game situation so he’ll have been pretty happy overall with what he saw because obviously we have a long way to go yet until our League One kick off with Shrewsbury Town on Saturday August 8 – so there is a lot of improvement still to be made.
For a full match report please click here.
As expected Harris gave game time to 21 players on the evening, and the first half saw summer signings Jordan Archer and Joe Martin make their non competitive debuts for the club.
With a number of chances for us in the first period especially, the opposition did start brightly and took advantage after ten minutes to break the deadlock and that seemed to spark us more to life as we grew into the game as the minutes ticked by.
After a number of chances were wasted, notably by Thompson, Upson and Marquis, we headed into the half time restart a goal behind, but the second period saw us fly out of the traps and Marquis levelled from the penalty spot three minutes after the break after O’Brien had been fouled in the box.
We took the lead on 56 minutes when an Onyedinma second attempt hit Thompson on the line and flew in.
Harris then made six changes on the hour mark that saw youngsters Mahlon Romeo, Kris Twardek, Kyron Farrell and Noah Chesmain make their first senior appearances for the club and they were soon followed by trialist Henrik Breimyr.
That obviously affected our rhythm as you’d expect and our hosts came more back into it. With Thompson picking up a knock after all our subs has been used, we played the last quarter of the game with ten men and Bromley made that count in the dying seconds of the game where Craig hit an own goal in his effective third debut for the club following his summer arrival.
Millwall were largely in control and comfortable at that point despite the man disadvantage by Craig managed to slice a clearance over his shoulder and over the head of King for what even the official site describes as ‘the most freaky of levellers.’
Plenty of positives though, a good run out, a couple of goals and match time under the belts of a good number of players that can only aide them as they continue their build up to the new campaign.
Millwall:
Archer (King 61), Cummings (Romeo 61), Martin (Chesmain 61), Beevers (Craig 46), Nelson (Webster 46), Upson (Farrell 61), Williams (Abdou 46), Thompson, Onyedinma (Breimyr 70), Marquis (Twardek 61), O’Brien (Pavey 61).
Scorers: Marquis (48 pen), Thompson (56).
Vital Millwall on:
Vital Millwall on:
Friendly – Bromley 2-2 Millwall
