Millwall can beat the drop from league one

By Simon Hayes on April 24, 2008 8:59 AM |

Tagged with:

The Lions' Roar by Ian Toal

Last weekend’s home defeat against Leeds United summed up our season well.

The Lions played well, putting the giants of the division under pressure in the second half and creating quite a few chances.

But you just knew that if we did not take one of those chances we would live to regret it. Predictably Leeds broke upfield and Prutton mis-hit a shot that squirmed into the bottom corner. One-nil then turned into 2-0 and it was game over for Millwall.

Supporters looked at the scores of the other games and hoped our impending defeat would not put us back in relegation trouble. Thankfully, Gillingham conceded an equaliser in their match, otherwise Saturday would have been a complete disaster for us.

The lack of a clinical finisher has been a major downfall for us this season but many clubs will also point to this common problem.

One shining light to come from the Leeds game is the form of on-loan winger Jay Simpson. His direct running at the opposition saw him beat half a dozen players on a few occasions and looked our best hope for a goal.

Opinion among our supporters is pretty divided over Simpson.

True, he has got his weaknesses, but Saturday demonstrated the potential he possesses and the club could well make a move for him in the summer.

This Saturday (April 26) sees our home programme concluded with a tough match against promotion-chasing Carlisle.

Our supporters club team will be entertaining the London branch of the Carlisle Supporters Branch in a friendly match in the morning which should be fun for all concerned.

On a much grander scale, I have been assisting Millwall supporter Jase Pickering in organising a charity football match at The Den between Millwall and Middlesbrough supporters on Friday, May 16, to raise money for the Finlay Cooper Fund.

This fund was set up in memory of ex-Millwall player and current Middlesbrough assistant manager Colin Cooper’s young son, who tragically died back in 2002.

This will be third match we have held between the two sets of supporters but this is special in being held at The Den and we have two high profile honorary captains, Colin Cooper for Boro and former captain and
manager Alan McLeary for Millwall.

Now this will be a day to look forward to.