If you went looking for excitement in a free flowing game of football you would have been very disappointed, but if you made your way to the Den to see the Clarets pick up more points then you'd have left delighted as we kept a first clean sheet in half a season and made it back to back victories, something we had to wait a long time for last season.
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| Lee Grant - outstanding performance |
A solitary goal from Jay Rodriguez, who netted his first ever away goal for Burnley just a year ago in the same fixture, was enough to win it on a day that apparently was the hottest recorded October day on record.
It was certainly a warm one down in the capital but nothing like the temperatures on the last occasion we won there, just over 10 years ago when goals from Alan Moore and Ian Moore gave us a 2-0 win and some disturbing scenes at the end.
The team news ahead of the game was as expected. With Junior Stanislas passed fit, Eddie Howe named the same team as had played in the two previous games with the only change coming on the bench where fit again Keith Treacy replaced Alex MacDonald.
The start was almost a sensational one. A long kick from David Forde, the home 'keeper, was allowed to bounce by David Edgar. That allowed Dany N'Guessan in but goalkeeper Lee Grant, who was to have such a starring role in the second half, came out to cut out the danger.
Anywhere else on the pitch, and with any other player, you might have been looking at a foul, but goalkeepers get away with it and Grant did on this occasion apart from suffering an injury that required extensive treatment. It transpired that he'd suffered a cut to his chin that later required six stitches.
In truth that was as close as Millwall came to hurting us in the first half. To suggest their strike partnership of N'Guessan and Jay Simpson was inept would be giving them far too much credit although N'Guessan did have a couple of half chances that he hit wide, so wide that the shots were probably as close to the goals at the Boleyn Ground and the Valley as they were to the ones in front of the away end at the Den.
We dominated the play. We had all the possession and seemed to be able to get forward whenever we wanted to. We had countless good situations in wide positions but all too often the delivery into the box was nowhere near good enough with Stanislas, hardly surprisingly targeted by the home fans, the biggest culprit.
Sadly, we were back to that laboured slow football that has blighted so many of our games this season. Gone was the tempo of the last two home games and despite all the possession and all the opportunities we didn't once trouble the Millwall goalkeeper until we eventually scored some seven minutes before half time.
It came from a corner taken by Ross Wallace, probably our best forward player on the day. He hit a low corner from the right that found Jay Rod on the end of the penalty box to left of centre and he hit a first time shot towards the bottom corner.
Forde got his hands to it but let it squirm out of his grasp an in just by the foot of the post and Jay had, for the second season in succession, given us a 1-0 lead there with a goal at that end of the ground.
We deserved the 1-0 half time lead. We were without any doubt the better side and had we been able to step things up a bit I'm convinced we might have had the game won by half time against a Millwall side that looks as though it has a lot of problems.
The second half was a different story altogether. Home boss Kenny Jackett replace Simpson at half time and introduced John Marquis. Right from the kick off they took control of the game and it was to be a long time before they relinquished it.
It was a case of having to defend as Millwall put us under pressure. We stood up to it for the most part with Grant joined by Andre Amougou in battling it out for the man of the match prize. Both were, thankfully, in excellent form, with Grant seemingly up to most of what they threw at us.
We did have our thankful moments. Marquis had the ball in the net. Whether it was offside or not, the flag had gone up early and long before he got the shot in. He also went down in the box under challenge from Edgar and my heart was in my mouth when referee Simon Hooper blew. He waved his yellow cards at Marquis for going down.
On a day when Martin Atkinson couldn't tell the difference between a player playing the ball and committing an offence, and on the same day when Mark Halsey managed to shorten the Molineux penalty box by a couple of yards, I don't think Millwall could have too many complaints.
Grant continued to make saves. We got blocks in and did what defences do under pressure. It was almost inspiring stuff as we fought for that clean sheet and three points.
We did have one good chance to put the game to bed with Chris McCann played in Stanislas. It could have been his first Burnley goal, and it certainly should have at least tested the goalkeeper, but he placed his shot wide of the far post from the left of the box.
We needed to change things and we did, and I think the significant change was Dean Marney for Marvin Bartley. Marney seemed to settle things down. He got his foot on the ball, something we'd struggled to do all the second half.
We didn't seem to get that bit more of the ball and the pressure eased. Yes, Millwall won a couple of corners in the four minutes of stoppage time, but by then they'd run out of ideas and we were starting to look more likely on the break.
The final whistle blew to great relief and a terrific response from the Burnley supporters, just as the home supporters to our left were beginning to let themselves and their club down. Just before the end there seemed to be problems on that side with the possibility of items having been thrown at Kieran Trippier, and as Burnley celebrated there were home fans being escorted, very much against their will, from the ground by police.
We even had a huddle at the end. I'm not so sure of that. I think I've seen it three times previously but all have been at the end of very special games - at Blackburn, Luton and Leicester.
"We'll play a lot better than that this season and lose," one Burnley fan said to me as we left the ground. I couldn't disagree and when it happens I'll be disappointed. Yesterday I was anything but disappointed, despite not playing well we'd got exactly what we came for - THREE POINTS.
The teams were;
Millwall: David Forde, Tamika Mkandawire, Scott Barron, Darren Ward, Paul Robinson, James Henry (Hameur Boazza 71), Brian Howard, Liam Trotter, Liam Feeney, Dany N'Guessan, Jay Simpson (John Marquis 45). Subs not used: Steve Mildenhall, Alan Dunne, Nadjim Abdou.
Yellow Cards: Brian Howard, John Marquis.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Andre Amougou, David Edgar, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace, Marvin Bartley (Dean Marney 73), Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas (Keith Treacy 79), Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Jon Stewart, Ben Mee, Zavon Hines.
Yellow Cards: Kieran Trippier, Marvin Bartley, Brian Easton.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire).
Attendance: 10,460 (including 574 Clarets).