Into the Lion's Den for the party

Last updated : 01 October 2010 By Tony Scholes

It might be Millwall's party but we want one of our own with a first away win of the season. Winning away from home is something we've got out of the habit of with only three league wins on the road since the end of 2008.

This season has seen us collect just two points from four games, from the draws at Ipswich and Crystal Palace. We've deserved more than the two points out of twelve and now we need to start building up the away points.

It's our first visit there since the last away match of the 2005/06 season. We lost that day and we have to go back to August 2001 and a sweltering hot day for our last win at a ground where, in total we have won three times.

The Moores, Ian and Alan, scored that day and our previous wins were in the 1994/95 season when two from Mark Winstanley and a Liam Robinson goal gave us a 3-2 win and in 1998/99 when Andy Cooke and Steve Davis netted in a 2-1 victory.

Cooke and Ian Moore enjoyed playing against Millwall and scored six and four goals respectively against them for Burnley. Maybe we could do with them both tomorrow, and then again, maybe not.

A win could push us further up that table as we head into the second international break, and somewhere soon we are going to get that first away win of the season.

Our Opponents


Millwall are 125 years old and tomorrow will see a special day at the Den for them with a lot of old players making a return both before the game and at half time. Given this, the timing of their promotion was perfect, winning the play off final against Swindon at Wembley last May.

It brought about a return to the second tier of English football after a four year absence, the relegation coming in 2006 when the club appeared to be in turmoil with chairmen and managers coming and going even quicker than Milan Mandaric gets rid.

They missed out in the play offs in 2009 but are now back under manager Kenny Jackett who replaced former Claret Willie Donachie almost three years ago. Jackett, who has also managed Watford and Swansea, passed 500 games as a manager during last season.

The form from the end of last season certainly continued into this season initially and they won three of their first four league games. More recently they've dropped off a bit but got the result of the season so far in midweek.

Just two weeks ago they were beaten 6-1 at home by Watford and then faced testing trips to the top two, Cardiff and QPR. They were unfortunate to lose 2-1 at Cardiff but did well in earning a point at QPR on Tuesday.

Right now they are in 12th place in the league with just three points less than us.

Click HERE to see Millwall's results this season


Team News


Darren Carter, who is on loan from Preston, has been out for the last three weeks with an ankle injury and could return, but the news isn't quite so good for Kevin Lisbie, another loanee from Ipswich, who missed the game in midweek and could still be missing with a knee injury.

Also out is Liam Trotter. He was sent off in that defeat at Cardiff last week and will serve the second of a three match suspension. And just to think, had he been on the other side it would have been quashed by the FAW.

Jackett could name the side that drew at QPR on Tuesday which was: David Forde, Alan Dunne, Tony Craig, Nadjim Abdou, Paul Robinson, Darren Ward, Scott Barron, Tamika Mkandawire, Danny Schofield, Steve Morison, Chris Hackett. Subs: Steve Mildenhall, James Henry, Ashley Grimes, Jack Smith, Marc Laird, Theo Robinson, Neil Harris.

Click HERE to see the full Millwall squad


Burnley have reported no injury problems after Tuesday's game so that leaves Chris McCann as the only player unavailable. Brian Laws will almost certainly choose from the same squad and it would be a surprise to see many, if any, changes to the starting eleven who played so well against Hull on Tuesday.

I'd expect the Burnley team to be: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney, Chris Eagles, Chris Iwelumo, Jay Rodriguez. Subs from: Lee Grant, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Leon Cort, Graham Alexander, Ross Wallace, Martin Paterson, Steven Thompson.

Last Time We Met


Micah Hyde
Micah Hyde - had our only shot at goal
It was a horror show. That's the only way to describe the Burnley performance on our last visit to the Den.

The game was played in an eerie atmosphere at an almost empty Den where home fans held banners attacking the running of the club and even booed player of the season David Livermore ahead of kick off.

This was end of season stuff and worse. Millwall were bad but we were a lot, lot worse and the only positives were the performances of our central defenders. Michael Duff and John McGreal started there but when McGreal was forced off with an injury we saw Frank Sinclair move into the middle with John Spicer playing the rest of the game at right back.

The only consolation as we approached half time was the fact that we were still level at 0-0. That was no surprise with neither side looking remotely capable of scoring a goal. Then, in stoppage time, Millwall did take the lead after a crazy mix up between Brian Jensen and James O'Connor. For me the blame was with O'Connor whose header back gave the goalkeeper no chance.

It had been dire, but the game got worse. We were no different in the second half but Millwall got worse and the two sides treated us to the worst 45 minutes I'd seen in years.

Even so, we might have got an equaliser but for referee Clive Penton who turned down the most obvious of penalties when Andy Gray was tugged back. Soon after Micah Hyde forced a routine save from Colin Doyle, our only effort at goal.

Steve Cotterill said after the game that the players should be embarrassed when attending the player of the year evening in the following week.

Whatever happens tomorrow, it really can't be as bad as that.

The teams were;

Millwall: Colin Doyle, Mark Phillips, Paul Robinson, Zak Whitbread (Dean Pooley 60), Tony Craig, Barry Cogan, Marvin Elliott, Will Hendry, Ben Williams (Trevor Robinson 90), Ben May, Berry Powel (Carlos Fangueiro 81), Subs not used: Alan Brooks, Curtis Weston.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Michael Duff, John McGreal (John Spicer 38), Jon Harley, Alan Mahon, James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Michael Ricketts (Wade Elliott 63), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Garreth O'Connor, Danny Karbassiyoon, Kyle Lafferty.

Previous games against Millwall


Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1994/95

1

a

3-2

7,375

Winstanley(2) Robinson

.

.

h

1-2

10,454

Shaw

1996/97

2

a

1-2

9,281

Nogan

..

h

1-0

9,840

Weller

1997/98

2

h

1-2

8,834

Cooke

.

.

a

0-1

7,582

.

1998/99

2

h

2-1

8,526

Cooke(2)

..

a

2-1

7,407

Cooke Davis

1999/2000

2

a

1-1

8,601

Cooke

.

.

h

4-3

14,890

Cox Cooke Davis Cook

2001/02

1

a

2-0

11,903

Ian Moore Alan Moore

..

h

0-0

16,131

.

2002/03

1

h

2-2

11,878

West Ian Moore

.

.

a

1-1

6,045

Ian Moore

2003/04

1

h

1-1

10,435

Ian Moore

.

FAC

a

0-1

10,420

.

.

1

a

0-2

10,148

.

2004/05

1

h

1-0

11,471

Blake(pen)

.

.

a

0-0

12,171

.

2005/06

C

h

2-1

10,698

Dyer Elliott

.

.

a

0-2

7,780

.



Click HERE to see all our results against Millwall