It's Round and It's White
After the opening day defeat to Blackpool on Saturday, I was hoping that we could kick start our season against relegation favourites Peterborough United. Fortunately, we did just that, picking up where we left off away from home last season earning a 2-1 win. In fairness we probably deserved to win by a larger margin, so Peterborough can count themselves lucky that they wasn’t on the end of a heavy defeat. When we visited London Road last season, we came away with a comfortable 3-0 victory. Things have changed since then however. A few in’s and out’s and a change in our style of play has given us a much different Millwall set-up, especially away from home by the looks of things.
When we went a goal down, I must admit I did fear the worst. Usually when we go behind the players heads immediately drop, especially away from home without the backing of a larger Millwall following. It’s very rare that we win from behind on the road, so obviously when we went 1-0 down, let’s just say the worry began to kick in. Peterborough were a side that we needed to pick up points from, even at this very early stage, as I feel that Posh will be in contention for relegation this season. We needed a bit of confidence after Saturday’s defeat, and I think the players will be more than pleased with the overall performance against Peterborough which should stand them in good stead for another away fixture on Saturday against Sheffield Wednesday.
Changes were made from that defeat on Saturday. Dunne, Osborne, and Abdou came in for Smith, Shittu and Ward. We lined up in a 4-3-3 formation which obviously worked well as we kept the ball with ease for large spells of the game and created lots of chances. If I was to sum the game up in a sentence, I would describe it as the ‘almost perfect away performance’. Good football, good result, but it would’ve been even sweeter if we took our chances to give us a bigger victory.
Despite early pressure from us, Peterborough took the lead on 12 minutes through George Boyd’s strike from distance. We had numerous chances to respond instantly, through Keogh and a fierce volley from Wright, but we couldn’t hit the target. As the clock ticked, a chance from Trotter and a free-kick from Henderson failed to trouble the keeper. It was at that point I began to think, this isn’t going to be our night, is it? Thankfully, we found the equaliser just before the break. A curling cross from Dunne in his 250th league appearance for the club found Malone at the far post, who side-footed it past Olejnik in the Peterborough goal for his first goal for the club. Going in with the scores level at the break was the very least that we deserved.
After the break though, it was all Millwall. Again, we had a countless amount of chances to score, but they were to no avail. However, a swift counter attack on 64 minutes saw us take the lead. Henry took the ball into the opposition’s half, laid it into Keogh who played in Henderson and he made no mistake, drilling the ball home. Henry had a brilliant chance to make it 3-1, but saw his thunderous 25-yard effort crash against the crossbar. The officials added on five minutes (I have no idea where that came from), but we held out for three valuable points. After two games, Millwall were in 17th and Peterborough found themselves 23rd.
Peterborough United: Olejnik, Alcock, Brisley, Zakuani, Bostwick, Tomlin, Boyd, Newell (McCann, 46 mins), Frecklington (Swanson, 73 mins), Ntlhe, P.Taylor (Sinclair, 46 mins). Scorers: Boyd (12 mins)
Millwall: M.Taylor, Dunne, Osborne, Lowry, Malone, Abdou, Wright, Trotter, Henry (Batt, 85 mins), Henderson, Keogh. Scorers: Malone (42 mins), Henderson (64 mins).
