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It was same again for the Clarets with both Paul Weller and Robbie Blake passed fit although that wasn’t to last long with Weller off the field with a recurrence of the injury after just four minutes of play and again replaced by Tony Grant as he was at West Ham a week earlier.
By then the Clarets had provided us with the one piece of decent action when Ian Moore got down the right hand side to cross well only to see none of his colleagues able to get on the end of it.
But it wasn’t Burnley who stamped any authority on the game in the first half in what was as bad a performance as we had seen from the Clarets at home this season and Millwall can probably count themselves unfortunate to go in at the interval without a lead.
Much of that was down to goalkeeper Brian Jensen who continued where he left off at West Ham and made three good saves, one of which was an exceptional save to his left to prevent former Burnley target Bob Peeters scoring.
Watching Peeters left me thankful that we never did sign him. Apart from being tall he appears to have no real ability and only seems able to get the better of a defender by holding on to him or fouling him.
Ifill was the next to test Jensen but again he was more than up to the task as the jeers from recent weeks turned to chants of ‘BEAST’ from the home crowd. That was refreshing because it did at least tell us that there was a crowd there. The home fans were even quieter than usual in the atmosphereless Turf Moor and with only hand fulls of visiting supporters it was proving to be another dull day in the stands.
The Clarets did have one chance when Facey had a run at goal down the left hand side but wasn't able to beat Warner with his shot that went too close to the Millwall keeper. It wasn’t a good day for the loan man and this was the only time he really threatened.
The last piece of first half action summed it all up really as Jensen again saved well and saw us go in level at 0-0 and thankful for that scoreline.
The half time discussions resulted in a belief that it couldn’t get much worse in the second half but in the early exchanges it certainly didn’t get much better an it was no real surprise when Millwall did finally take the lead eight minutes in.
A ball in from the left found Noel Whelan who was able to get it past Jensen and then head into the empty net. Again there were arguments in the Burnley defence with captain Graham Branch pointing his fingers clearly in the direction of our Danish keeper.
I’m not so sure and the skipper should surely be asking questions as to how Whelan was in so much space in our penalty box rather than pointing that finger of blame at the keeper on this occasion.
There’s no doubt that had Burnley continued to play the way they had up to this goal then we would surely have been beaten but the goal set off the alarm clock and with that wake up call we finally started to play a bit.
And seven minutes after falling behind we drew level. Luke Chadwick crossed deep from the right and Facey was able to turn it back in for Ian Moore to back heel it in from almost on the line, a fourth goal in five games for Mooro against the Lions.
And he should have had another within a minute as he got himself clear on the edge of the box but failed to test Warner with a poor effort that missed the target.
Suddenly the game really had changed and it was all Burnley for a period as we went looking for a second goal to try and win the game but with fifteen minutes to go that all seemed to come to an end when Chadwick limped off to be replaced by Farrelly.
There is no doubt that the form of Chadwick and Blake is paramount. Chadwick was playing well and Blake after a poor first hour was coming into the game. Farrelly did nothing wrong at all when he came on but that inspiration from Chadwick went missing and so did Burnley’s threat.
And it was Millwall who nearly won the game when Kevin Braniff beat Dean West and hit a shot that Jensen was just able to turn onto the post and that save secured the point.
We certainly weren’t worth more than a point and perhaps were thankful for Millwall’s inability to turn their domination of the first hour into more than a one goal lead. With Dean West having a nightmare they had spotted that and that was the supply area for most of their attacks but certainly they look a side without any real striker power.
As for the Clarets there was little flowing football and it was certainly easier to pick out the poorer individual performances than the better ones.
The sponsors incredibly awarded the Man of the Match to Arthur Gnohere who unfortunately provided us with those lapses of concentration that so badly effect his performances. Twice early in the second half he almost cost us a goal although otherwise he did play well.
Jensen just simply had to be our best player, without his top drawer saves we would have been a beaten side. The much maligned keeper has now had two successive good games and hopefully that will lift his confidence for the games ahead.
Stan has been given some funds, he has constantly said he needs more players, and that is something he has to do quickly with more injuries. Weller and Chadwick are almost certainly ruled out of our Carling Cup tie at Wolves and the numbers are getting smaller and smaller.
The numbers are getting smaller and smaller in the stands too, less than ten and a half thousand watched the game. Our former Chief Executive Andrew Watson was telling Burnley fans this week that Barry Kilby is very concerned about the continued lack of walk ons and there is no doubt that the club has to do something, and something very quickly, to arrest this dramatic decline in the attendances.
And just a final word on the referee and for the third match in succession it is difficult to criticise and Tony Bates looked more intent on allowing the players to play than wanting to be a star turn. And so for the third match in succession I say well done to the referee.
The teams were,
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West, Graham Branch, Arthur Gnohere, Mo Camara, Ian Moore, Paul Weller (Tony Grant 4), Richard Chaplow, Luke Chadwick (Gareth Farrelly 76), Robbie Blake, Delroy Facey. Subs not used: Lee Roche, Joel Pilkington, Matt O’Neill.
Millwall: Tony Warner, Kevin Muscat, Darren Ward, Paul Robinson, Robbie Ryan, Paul Ifill, David Livermore, Peter Sweeney, Andy Roberts, Neil Harris (Noel Whelan 26), Bob Peeters (Kevin Braniff 62). Subs not used: Willy Gueret, Matt Lawrence, Dennis Wise.
Referee: Tony Bates (Stoke).