Lions Bite Back Late On As Crewe Drop 2 Points

Around 200 Alex fans made the trip to London, although a large majority of them were exiles from London. It was a strange hot but cloudy day at The New Den as Crewe warmed up on the good flat pitch.

The team read out as expected, but by a strange PA guy. Making sure we know it’s Adie Moses and not Adi Moses. Chris McCready had a laugh when his name was read out as Chris McReady and Justin Cochrane is Justin Cocohrane. He also explained that Allan Smart was wearing the number 20 shirt, not 19, which was nice of him.

The start of the game was dull at the best of times. The Millwall crowd got bored of trying to be intimidating after a couple of minutes when they realised out stupid they looked with their arms out or just stood there with two fingers up at Crewe fans. It was only a small minority who took that in this, I must add.

In the first five minutes the only noticeable thing that happened was Clayton Ince getting a gash to the head as he tried to gather a Dennis Wise cross. Ince was being treated for a few minutes before getting back up and taking the free kick. Infact nothing happened for the next fifteen minutes either. Brammer had a shot flying over the bar and Ashton was caught off side a few times but other than that it was a scrappy game with tackles from Millwall going in left right and centre.

Millwall, like Ipswich last week, were very rough around the area and gave Crewe chances to get free-kicks around the area. The typical Crewe free-kick nearly worked a couple of times in the first 20 minutes. First Ashton volleyed Lunts free-kick just over before Foster volley inches wide.

The best chance fell to Jones on the 25th minute Crewe hit Millwall on the break. Jones went down the left wing before cutting inside the area and from a tight angle his shot was blocked by a Millwall defender. Ashton had a case when he shouted at Jonah for not squaring the ball to him.  

Crewe were getting the better of play and regularly broke down the wings. The main threat to Millwall was coming from the 4 midfield men, Lunt, Brammer, Rix and Cochrane. The defence were also on top form. Adie Moses, who was my man of the match at the end of the game, and Foster. They had a 6ft 5in guy, Bob Peeters, to deal with along with a diving cheating nippy striker named Harris.

I call him a diver because he made the worst dive you’ll see this season. Harris is running down the left of the penalty area but Wright, Vaughan and Brammer all cut infront of him to take the ball off him, after he tries to push Brammer off the ball he just collapse’s to the floor – that’s when he was a good yard or two behind the 3 red shirts. The referee saw it wasn’t a penalty and told him to get up – but somehow ignored the fact it was a dive and therefore did not book him.

After 30 minutes the game was stopped for a couple of minutes as the players stopped to get a drink and refresh. A few minutes after Ashton smashed a 30 yard free kick at goal, it curled round the wall but there wasn’t enough pace on it to beat Warner in goal.

 In the 40^th minute Jonah again got the better of Millwall down the left and from a tight angle his hammered shot was parried out for a corner. Just before that Jonah had the ball in the net. A squared ball from Ashton found Jones who ‘chested’ it into the net but the flag had gone up for Ashton being offside.

Millwall never really threatened the goal in the first half. One or two lame headers were easily gathered by Ince but the only other threat came from Noel Whelan and Bob Peeters who tried to cut into the left of the box a lot, Moses, Wright and Foster had it all covered though.

In the second half things were starting to look a little more urgent for both teams. Five minutes in and it all looked like Millwall had taken the lead. A cross from the left found Cahill who towered above Foster to smash a header at goal. Ince went down, and looked to have mis judged the bouncing ball, but as the Millwall crowd erupted Ince had managed to punch the ball up and over the bar.  Eight minutes later and the Alex were in the lead. Ashton tried to flick the ball on with his head, from a Vaughan throw in, he turned to run onto his own flick on but  8 yards out of the area it seemed like the Millwall keeper, Tony Warner, was about to clear the danger. Ashton tried to block the clearance but at the same time a Millwall defender was trying to stop Ashton blocking it. In the end Warner smashed the ball at the Millwall player and it bounced back towards the ope net, and from a tight angle on  the left wing Ashton curled it into the far right corner of the net. 1-0.

Moments before Jones had the same opportunity but he spent too long on the ball and a few defenders got back to block the Ashton shot, after Jones had squared it.

Millwall soon had the chance to equalise. A mix up between Foster and Wright allowed Harris to break free into the area but, as he tried to round Ince, Ince threw himself at the ball and gathered it up to deny Millwall another good chance.

Little happened in front of goal for 20 or so minutes. Ashton had a couple of shots blocked while Cahill at the other end had a 20 yard shot easily gathered by Ince. 83^rd minute saw the game go crazy. Ashton was caught offside from a cross, sat on the floor he looked at the linesman and showed him ‘the finger’. The referee spoke to the linesman before booking Ashton. Dario instantly took Deano off for Allan Smart.

Ashton had been whinging all through the game but the majority of times he was offside and it was down to his poor positioning that saw the linesman have his flag up so many times.

The bad thing was that Ashton gave the referee a reason to find his book – something he hadn’t been thinking about touching before. A minute later and Chris McCready was booked for time wasting.

Lunt was nearly booked for an elbow on Dennis Wise down the right but Lunt also claimed that Wise had him round the neck. A minute later and Lunt was booked for tripping Whelan, or letting Whelan dive. The ref tried his hardest to even it up when Smart’s first action in the match was him being tripped by Nethercott.

88 minutes in and Millwall fans were leaving, it did look beyond them as Crewe took as long as possible to do the simplest things. Slowing things down though doesn’t stop mistakes and on the half way line Vaughan tried to clear a bouncing ball but totally misjuged it and Cahill went flying down the right side before crossing for Whelan on the end of the area to send a looping header in off the left post.

It was a gutting goal and won Millwall a undeserved point. It was a point though and a point I would have taken before the game but after a match where we were worthy of 3 points you just couldn’t help feeling gutted.

Things on the pitch are looking positive and Dario even says he’s disappointed with the performance. I thought the performance was good and if we stay as consistent as we have been these past couple of weeks then I think a mid-table position is possible but if we can get better then excellent.

Three points on Monday, at home to Walsall, would be a massive boost and I don’t see why we can’t get 3 points. What needs working on is going for the kill, we really need a goal or two more in these matches we are dominating. Needless to say 4 points against Millwall and Ipswich is an excellent run.

Walsall and Burnley are a possible 6 points and we will get 6 points if we play like we have done, In my view.