Millwall 3 Bristol Rovers 2

Manager Kenny Jackett welcomed back Tresor Kandol after the on-loan Leeds United striker's forced absence from the FA Cup win last weekend. And the target man was on the scoresheet within three minutes, as another loanee exposed the failings of the Rovers defence.

In his first game since extending his loan spell from QPR last week, Adam Bolder whipped in a deep corner which had Rovers stopper Steve Phillips flailing. His weak punch dropped through the crowd to Tony Craig, who managed to squeeze the ball into the centre for Kandol to tap home.

Bristol's Aaron Lescott handed Millwall a second under a quarter of an hour later, playing a back pass straight to Kandol when he was put under pressure outside the area. The striker wiggled past Phillips to slot the ball into the net from an acute angle.

But if Millwall thought they could unfold the deck chairs after their early brace, they reckoned without League One's top scorer Rickie Lambert, who headed home his 18th of the season less than two minutes later from Stuart Campbell's corner.

And the Den crowd feared the worst when referee Graham Scott brandished a bewildering red card at Jimmy Abdou in first-half injury time. Scott had booked the midfielder for a challenge, but then followed it up with a red that had the home team scratching their heads.

The whistleblower mistakenly believed he had booked Abdou earlier in the game, but eventually rescinded the card after consulting the fourth official. Nevertheless, Adbou was replaced by Marc Laird at the interval.

A fiercely-contested second half brought chances for both sides, but it was 68th minute substitute Chris Hackett that provided the telling ball to break down Rovers' defence for a third time. He looped a long pass down the right channel for Alexander, who hardly broke his stride before lashing a venomous right foot shot into the net.

But even that spectacular effort didn't deflate the away team's resolve, and they again halved Millwall's two-goal cushion within five minutes. Rovers capitalised on a poor attempted clearance, and Jo Kuffour was on hand to curl in an eight-yard strike on the turn for 3-2.

The two teams traded efforts in the closing stages, but Rovers could not dig out a third goal to silence the home faithful. MK Dons' 2-0 home loss to fellow promotion challengers Scunthorpe thrust Millwall up to second place, two points behind leaders Leicester City.

Manager Kenny Jackett said: "We've moved up a place in the table and we've got a healthy points total but we had to work really hard to overcome a big challenge.
"It was an open game and at 2-1 I always felt we needed a third to get us over the line.
"Our forwards did well and obviously it's good to score three but we were up against a very good footballing side today."

Millwall: Forde, Dunne, Frampton, Robinson, Craig, Martin, Abdou (Laird 46), Bolder, Grabban (Hackett 68), Alexander (Harris 82), Kandol.

Subs Not Used: Whitbread, Grimes.

Booked: Dunne, Kandol, Abdou, Bolder.

Goals: Kandol 3, 17, Alexander 74.

Bristol Rovers: Phillips, Ryan Green, Elliott, Anthony, Lescott, Disley (Duffy 75), Lines (Jacobson 26), Campbell, Hughes, Lambert, Kuffour.

Subs Not Used: Hinton, Pipe, Hunt.

Booked: Anthony.

Goals: Lambert 19, Kuffour 78.

Attendance: 8,123