The Lads headed where taxi drivers won't go (south of the river) much depleted by injuries (Browne, Mundle, Cirkin, plus others) and suspensions (Bellingham, Hume, Roberts) and came within a couple of minutes of beating Millwall at their own game. Connolly's early strike came as we swarmed all over the Lions, then we lost our grip a bit before the unfortunate stoppage. Thereafter it was pretty much a second half of backs to the wall, and 1-1 was ultimately a well earned point.
Apart from worrying about those absences for the past couple of weeks (three games in a week, two weeks off, three games in a week - yer couldn't mek it up, man!) I suffered the strangest dream which had me returning to my former employer only to find my gaffer was Gary Lineker, who had as pets virtual reality versions of two of my former colleagues. Which made SAFC worries pale into insignificance and prove you have to be a bit mad...
A peep through the curtains at 0600 revealed a decent covering of snow and more swirling about, but thankfully it wasn't the wrong kind and the trains were just about on time. Storm Bert - was that your best shot?
Added to our squad depletion we had Millwall's record as the most successful side in the division at winning when they scored first, so the discussion on the train centred on their inability to know what style we'd employ - simply because of enforced changes. Various Sunderland folk in the George near London bridge voiced their opinions, and the whole area was full of Mackems, as was the Southwark brewery - familiar faces reacquainted with, which is a big part of awaydays...as were the Scottish Millwall fans, who were great craic... and I thought our lot are mad.
Patterson
O'Nien Mepham Ballard Alese
Rigg Neil (c)
Mayenda Connolly Isidor Watson
...and a bench of Moore (a bit unlucky), Jones, Middlemas, Ba, Aouchiche, Aleksic, Johnson, Anderson, and Ogunsuyi - which made me think our youths had been brought down for a baptism of fire. No Cirkin, who their fans apparently fear the most.
Defending "our" end in in the stripes, we let them start, but we were positive from the off with Issy thankfully central and Mayenda putting himself about out on the right.
Watson was confidently going at them, cutting inside as if Clarke had never gone away, and when a cross was only cleared to the edge of the box, Connolly walloped it past the keeper's left hand and in. Only ten gone, and basically, we just went at them and they weren't sure what to do about it. We created another couple of chances and should probably have been three up.
After 25 minutes they started to get physical but Watson did well to clag one of theirs first. So many Millwall free kicks went the same way - high over our defence, but were dealt with before Patterson was needed. Lots of offsides but so many 50-50s were given to them.
On 40 there was medical situation in their crowd to our left, leading to a stoppage, then the teams went off and a second incident occurred. They were back at 1610 and restarted at 1615, with us having to defend a corner and a series of long throws, but barring one punch Patto didn't have to use his hand(s) in the first half. Unsurprisingly there was no added time, and we spent the break checking if our scheduled trains were still viable. Just about.
No changes for us, but Honeyman made way for the ginormous Bradshaw and we were off again. A Nosworthy backpass by Ballard led to an early corner, and that (the corner, not the pass) set the tone for the following 45 minutes, with the odd break to give us a breather.
Patterson was called on to make a couple of standard saves, they put a couple of good headed chances either over or wide, and Connolly twanged something as he helped out at the back. On came Aleksic and we probably should have given him some sandbags, a tin hat, and an entrenching tool. Every time we got hold of the ball we seemed to give a free kick away thirty yards out, and it needed a few bits of excellent defending by Mepham to protect our lead.
We somehow kept them at bay, and as soon as their keeper got the ball it was launched back at our box. Tough times, and Watson struggled to get any sort of forward movement, but we did draw a decent save after a clever pass by Rigg. Mind, he'd have been better off having a peek himself when our next opportunity arose, but he laid it to Mayenda and we ran out of space. Are the other end crosses and corners rained in, and when five added minutes were announced the home side, with all five sets of fresh legs on, just kept piling into us. Another cross flew across our area and there was their man with time to pick his spot and fire low across Patto and in. 93 minutes - so near, but so far away.
Was it a case of us sitting back or Millwall forcing us back? Probably a bit of both, to be honest and while folks had screamed for Reg to change things, our bench probably didn't have the variety to do that.
Man of the Match? For his second half display, it has to be Mepham. A class act.
