A ‘poor game of football’ ended on a high for the travelling contingency, in-front of the Sky Sports cameras, as Rovers battled hard against a physical Millwall side, before coming away with maximum points courtesy of late goals from Joe Nuttall and Adam Armstrong, as Tony Mowbray’s men grabbed their first victory, and clean sheet on the road since their 1-0 victory away at Bolton Wanderers, on 6th October.
The televised clash saw Rovers take an altered squad to The New Den, as the travelling party of 18 saw the inclusion of youth, in the form of Joe Nuttall, Lewis Travis – who kept his starting berth – and Danny Butterworth. The former was included from the start, as the sole striker for Rovers, whilst the latter made his way onto the bench. In addition to the change that saw Nuttall replace the benched Danny Graham, Tony Mowbray who was without Charlie Mulgrew due to a hamstring injury, drafted in Jack Rodwell to partner Darragh Lenihan at the heart of defence, whilst Harrison Reed returned to the starting line-up to replace Adam Armstrong, who also found himself on the bench. In amongst the changes, Craig Conway made his 150th start in all competitions for Rovers.
As 5:30pm struck on the clock, it was Millwall who began the game from the kick-off, as they looked to extend their 4-game unbeaten run, which had seen them beat Reading, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town in the league, in addition to a 2-1 triumph over Hull City in the FA Cup 3rd Round.
Despite the pre-match optimism from the Lions, that soon took a hit, less than a minute into the affair after forward 6’4” forward Tom Elliott went down after he challenged for a header with Darragh Lenihan. After indicating to the bench that he could no longer continue due to a dislocated shoulder, he was withdrawn and replaced by fellow forward Steve Morison.
On the 11th minute, Joe Nuttall – who had riled up the home crowd by drawing a few early fouls – was convinced that he had been tripped up by Jake Cooper as he ran beyond the defender to get on the end of Bradley Dack’s through ball. Although the 21-year old protested, referee Robert Jones waved play on.
Minutes later, Shaun Hutchinson had a deep free-kick for the home side, that he tried to make something out of. Although Millwall have been renowned for their prolific nature at set-pieces, the lofted ball into the box was headed wide by Cooper.
As the 24th minute came around, referee Robert Jones signalled that he could no longer continue and that the fourth official – Gavin Ward – was set to take place, which signalled the substitution of the officials.
The first-half lacked any major chances at goal that would be deemed necessary to take note of, as both sides continued to fight and deal with the oppositions’ aerial threats and balls into the box. Although Rovers weren’t as deliberate in their attacking directness as Millwall were, both sides lacked the guile required to cut through their opponent’s defence, which made viewing of the game incredibly difficult and agitating to watch.
Despite a pair of chances by Cooper, on minutes 33 and 38 respectively, which both failed to trouble David Raya, the first-half zoomed past, before it was ended after another monotonous 3 minutes were added on.
With the first-half snoozefest behind them, both sides returned to their respective dressing rooms to try and conjure up a plan that would burst the game into life.
Home manager, Neil Harris’s frustrations at the break would have been made evident to his team that, at that moment, were looking to continue their unbeaten run of 4. Although they had, had – if at all applicable – the ‘better chances’ of the game, until the break, his side were not displaying the eye for goal that had seen them notch 7 goals in the past 4 games.
Similarly, Tony Mowbray’s feeling towards that first-half would have been like that of his counterpart, due to the lack of creativity and threat towards the Millwall goal his side had offered during the opening 45 minutes. With that in mind however, the 55-year old would have been pleased that his side had managed to keep the home team away from their goal, with David Raya having needn’t to do much during the first-half.
Rovers restarted the game for the second-half, but not before they made an alteration in personnel, as Ryan Nyambe was brought on to replace Corry Evans, who had picked up an ankle injury in the first-half. This switch allowed for Elliott Bennett to move into the centre of midfield, alongside Lewis Travis which allowed Nyambe to occupy the right-back slot.
The first chance of the second-half fell to Millwall as Aiden O’Brien managed to get on the end of Jed Wallace’s cross, however the forward, who was being manhandled by Lenihan, saw his header sail wide of the goal.
A couple of minutes before the hour mark saw Millwall execute a fine move which didn’t have a successful end product. A Shane Ferguson cross was knocked down awkwardly by substitute Morison, which gave Ryan Leonard the potential opportunity to execute an overhead kick from a tight angle. Although he attempted it, the ball slipped off his foot and went behind for a goal-kick.
On the hour mark, however, Leonard nearly caught David Raya by surprise with a right-footed effort from around 30-yards. A high ball was cleared by Lenihan, only as far as Leonard, who hit the ball, in his stride, with the outside of his right-foot. Although the improvisation was good, Raya had enough about him to palm the ball away to safety, as he denied the former Southend United midfielder, his 3rd goal of the season.
Rovers’ second change of the evening came 4 minutes after Leonard’s attempt, as Craig Conway departed with Danny Graham replacing him.
The Yellows cranked up the pressure following the arrival of Graham as they earnt back-to-back set-pieces that culminated in the deadlock nearly being broken. The first set-piece led to the second, as a Harrison Reed free-kick saw Nuttall head the ball off Mahlon Romeo, which gave Rovers a corner. The subsequent corner, taken by Reed, saw Jack Rodwell try to find the back of the net with a header at the near-post, however his flick had too much on it, as Millwall earnt a goal-kick.
On the 68th minute, Millwall made their second alteration as top goalscorer Lee Gregory replaced Aiden O’Brien.
After some time passed with little opportunities, Rovers made their final change of the game, which allowed Adam Armstrong to come on in-place of Bradley Dack.
With 79 minutes gone, Raya again was tested by Millwall as a Gregory lay-off to Romeo resulted in Raya being forced to make a save.
Former Rovers loanee, Ryan Tunnicliffe got a chance to try and score against his former side, but his effort from the edge of the box ended up in the sky, rather than in the net.
With the game looking more and more likely to end as a goalless stalemate, Rovers soon found the gear that propelled them into a 1-0 lead, thanks to both Joe Nuttall and Adam Armstrong’s instinctive movements. A slick passing move by Rovers, which developed following a Millwall clearance, saw the Yellows recycle play through Reed and Travis before the killer blow was struck. After some interplay between Travis and Armstrong, the latter got beyond the Millwall backline and had the ball played into him by Travis. The onside forward drove to the byline, inside the penalty area, before squaring the ball into Nuttall, who saw the ball deflect off James Meredith and hit Shaun Hutchinson, before colliding with his falling body and finding the bottom corner of Jordan Archer’s goal.
Millwall reacted to going a goal down by making their final change, as James Meredith made way for Shaun Williams.
Before the 983 travelling fans could finish celebrating the first, they were soon revelling in a second goal, after Adam Armstrong doubled the lead, 1 minute and 43 seconds after creating the first. A long ball forward was brought down by Rodwell and played into Travis, who turned and found Bennett on halfway. The captain for the night, picked up the ball and saw Armstrong calling for a pass, whilst make a darting run beyond Hutchinson, which Bennett obliged to, with a superbly weighted through ball. The former Newcastle United forward took control of the ball, before dazzling Hutchinson and Cooper with a few stepovers and slotting the ball past the despairing Archer – who did get a touch on the ball – into the net, via the right-hand upright to double Rovers’ advantage to 2-0.
As the Rovers fans began serenading their team, substitute referee Gavin Ward soon called time on the tedious affair after 3 minutes of added time were played.
With this game less than likely to make the ‘Championship Classics’ showreel, Rovers proved in this fixture, that they were capable of winning ugly. Whilst the game wasn’t a free-flowing affair, with a high number of direct balls, combined with a physical battle and stoppages in play, Mowbray’s men displayed their fighting qualities that categorised them as ‘soldiers’, as the boss would say. Furthermore, with Millwall having picked up 22 of their 28 points at home, Rovers demonstrated that they were able to compete and emerge victorious under the toughest of circumstances and atmospheres, with the victory being even more impressive due to Millwall’s previous unbeaten run.
Even though the players have to be given credit for this performance, most of the credit must be given to Tony Mowbray and his staff, who executed the perfect game-plan in order to deal with Millwall’s physicality and style of play. The surprising inclusion of Joe Nuttall from the start raised a few eyebrows – mine included – however the 21-year old’s selection was justified as he put himself about and made himself a nuisance to both the defenders and the fans. Additionally, the capture of Rovers’ first clean sheet since the start of October would have no doubt pleased the boss and spread confidence within the camp, especially because it was achieved without Charlie Mulgrew. At the other end of the pitch, the ‘gamble’ of having 4 strikers on the bench – Adam Armstrong, Danny Graham, Ben Brereton and Danny Butterworth – also paid off for Rovers, due to Armstrong’s clever play in assisting and scoring the goals that sealed the tie.
This brilliant result moves Rovers up to 14th in the table, with 37 points and a -6 goal difference from 27 games. Although on paper, Rovers may look ‘average’, 37 points sees Mowbray’s men 14 clear of the relegation zone, whilst only sitting 6 points off the playoffs – a target that the majority of the squad, including the manager, still have in their sights.
The games do not stop here, however, as Rovers’ next challenge sees them once again tango with the Toon from Tyneside, as Rafa Benítez’s Newcastle United are welcomed to Ewood Park for the FA Cup 3rd round replay on Tuesday, 15th January at 7:45pm, which will be live on BT Sport. Following on from that, Rovers remain at home in order to face bottom-of-the-table Ipswich Town on Saturday, 19th January at 3pm. If Rovers overcome the hurdle of Newcastle, their third game in the space of a fortnight, will see Watford make the trip up to Ewood Park for the FA Cup 4th round. If, however, Newcastle emerge victorious, Hull City will instead, be the visitors on Saturday, 26th January, (3pm).
