Silverlion’s report on the 2-2 draw between Millwall and Nottingham Forest
A decent game of football almost completely ruined by one of the most inept displays by an official I have seen for a long time.
It started off with a ball knocked through to Woolford who was goal side and was pushed right in the back by Halford who escaped with a talking to. 30 seconds later Beevers took Chalobah out on the half way line and got a booking. The ref was on a hiding to nothing from then on.
We started well and it was clear that both Morison and Waghorn were up for it. Morison was a real handful, jumping for everything and working hard. His just reward came after 7 minutes when the ball broke to him 25 yards out and he hit it sweetly right into the corner. We had some good spells with a lot of pressing by the whole team. Everybody was getting their foot in, even Trotter, and it was ruffling them. Martin broke into their box and, as he was about to pull the trigger their bloke pushed him over and pushed the ball off for a corner. A blatant penalty but the ref just gave the corner. They came back into it and started to control the midfield. Out of nothing their bloke got in front of Jimi, knocked it to Reid who looked up and hit it into the top corner with Force well beaten. That was their only shot on goal in the first half.
The second half started with them on the front foot and they pressed hard. We were still defending from the front and when the ball broke to Morison he knocked it on to Waghorn who knocked it into the box for Woolford. He had a lot to do but wrapped his foot around it and hit it into the opposite corner for 2-1. They tried hard to push forward but, from another break, Waghorn was floored int the box and the ref denied us our second penalty.
They pressed hard with good possession in midfield and won a corner. There was a lot of handbags going on and the ref had a word. When the ball arrowed in from the right off Reid’s left foot Chalobah rose above several static defenders to head their second. Both teams tried to step up a gear and then SL took off Waghorn and replaced him with Keogh, who looked out of it. Easter would have been a better move. Feeney came on for Woolford but added little except one decent cross.
On reflection maybe a draw was a fair result but with a more considerate ref and a more sensible substitution we could have snatched it.
Beevers had a solid game at the back and his timely interceptions earned him my MOM but Morison wasn’t far behind. The ref was soundly booed by the whole crowd at the end, and rightly so. He was poor.
