Millwall 5 Tranmere 0

While Reading loanee Henry's crossing and free kick skills helped his side to their biggest home win for more than eight years, Tranmere couldn't have shot themselves in the foot more often if they'd had automatic weapons.

Assistant manager Jason McAteer was sent from the touchline in the final ten minutes, and Marlon Broomes slunk off the field after a second-bookable offence just a few minutes later. By the time Henry completed his hat-trick from the ensuing free-kick, the pair may well have already been starting work on an escape tunnel.

The result piles extra pressure on Tranmere manager John Barnes, who finds his side two places off the bottom with a goal difference of -17. The game itself finished an hour earlier than normal, since Millwall were already up 4-0 within the first 30 minutes.

Henry took just six minutes to put Millwall ahead, bending and bouncing a free kick to the keeper's left. Luke Daniels was picking the ball out once again three minutes later, while away fans were merely looking through their fingers. A corner from the right was headed to the edge of the area, nodded back in again, lifted into the middle, bounced back again, and dispatched into the net by Andy Frampton.

The third goal belonged to summer signing Steve Morison, who strode onto James Henry's looping cross from the right to head the ball home, surrounded by a pair of flailing defenders. Henry was again involved in the fourth, picking up a loose ball on the halfway line and purposefully galloping towards goal before scything a low shot beyond Daniels from long range. It was an excellent effort, but an embarrassing one for the away back-line.

For Lions keeper David Forde, the game was an excellent opportunity to catch up on his emails or write his shopping list, but he did manage to parry a rare shot from John Welsh in the second 45 minutes. A comparatively dull second half flared up in the last ten minutes with Tranmere's ejections on and off the field, and by Henry's low free kick to complete his hat-trick.

While the result took Millwall's goal difference into the black, it also seems to have wiped out any sense of relief Barnes may have felt after win over Wycombe a few days previously.

Millwall: Forde, Smith, Barron, Abdou, Craig, Frampton, Martin (Schofield 68), Laird, Alexander, Morison, Henry (Hackett 86)

Subs not used: Sullivan, Dunne, Harris, Bolder, Price

Goals: Henry (6, 27, 85), Frampton (9), Morison (23)

Tranmere Rovers: Daniels, Logan, Cresswell, Goodison, Shuker, Broomes, Thomas-Moore (Taylor 85), Ricketts (Curren 66), McLaren, Welsh, Carole (Mahon 60)

Subs not used: Collister, Bain, Barnett, Edds

Attendance: 8,046