|
It was a poor first half with very little football of any quality although Millwall had the edge. Brian Jensen made a couple of mistakes early in the game but got away with them. He had more than made up for it by half time with two good saves and one exceptional save.
Apart from that a Neil Harris effort went just over with the keeper caught off his line and then a deflected effort went just wide.
However, the best chance of the half fell to Ian Moore who supposedly has no problem scoring in the FA Cup or against Millwall. Unfortunately he does have problems scoring in the FA Cup AND against Millwall. Although keeper Willy Gueret saved well he really should not have given him a chance.
Goalless at half time though and we were happy enough, we could quite easily have been behind on the balance of play.
It had been niggly but what can you expect with Dennis Wise on the pitch. He is apparently a mate of Stan’s who had been praising the Millwall boss during the week. To me he is just the sort of person who football can quite do without.
Since taking over he has said he will play football in the face of the opposition and will get at them and to confirm that he appointed Kevin Muscat as his captain.
Whatever happened this afternoon that shouldn’t have done he was involved in it and scandalously after the game his number two Ray Wilkins was accusing Burnley of trying to get him.
We made no changes for the second half although many thought that Glen Little and Neil Wood, both very ineffective, were somewhat fortunate to still be out there as the pattern of the game changed.
Millwall had been the better side in the first half, they quite simply murdered us in the second. for the first quarter of an hour after the break I cannot recall us every really having any possession other than clearing the ball as they pressed at us.
They had decided we were weak at full back and tried to exploit that weakness. We are and they succeeded.
We needed a change, we needed to do something, but when the change came it stunned just about every Burnley supporter in the ground as Robbie Blake’s number 8 was held up.
Robbie had not played well in his new white boots but we had seen the effect of not having him on the pitch last week, now we were volunteering to play almost half an hour without him.
The decision was not greeted with great enthusiasm by the Burnley fans who saw this as yet another, "Let’s hang on for a draw" ploy. But that all came unstuck just eight minutes later when Camara failed to defend a ball and when it was knocked back in Danny Dichio was there to head home.
Cue the jellied eel, pie and mash music as the away end fell into total silence and worse was to come as we went down to ten men. Inevitably Wise was involved as Paul Weller received the first red card of his career for pushing him.
Weller was reacting to a stamp on his ankle that referee Webb missed from five yards but he clearly saw the push and had the red card out almost before Wise hit the ground as if he had been punched by Mohammed Ali in his prime.
Weller deserved to go but Wise’s reaction was nothing short of a disgrace and you have to wonder just how this nasty piece of work was still on the pitch at the time.
We are not very good at playing against ten men but we are probably the worst at playing with ten men and with eighteen minutes left you sensed that we were on our way out of the FA Cup.
A goal down, down to ten men, and only one forward on the pitch with Robbie sat watching. We brought on Luke Chadwick and Alan Moore and at least gave it a go with hardly a defender in sight.
Jensen, yes he is Danish Mr. Schmeichel, made two saves one of which was exceptional and then Millwall missed a chance that was easier than Mooro's. But somehow we kept it at 1-0.
And then in the last minute a cross from Glen Little was header back across goal by Ian Moore but Alan Moore failed to reach it and the chance was gone along with our involvement in the FA Cup.
Cup exits are always hard to take but at least we left the Den knowing this one was fully deserved, anything other than a Millwall win would have been a rank injustice. I just wish they didn’t have to do it with Wise.
There were very few decent individual performances for the Clarets. Jensen played well in goal in front of two sound central defenders. In midfield England new boy Richard Chaplow and Tony Grant again did well. Grant though was yellow carded and will, like Weller, miss the league visit to the Den in two week’s time.
The rest for me were all disappointing, we just didn’t have enough players playing well enough. But again we looked like a side content to play for a draw just as we did at Watford last year and the result was the same – an FA Cup exit.
The teams were,
Millwall: Willy Gueret, Kevin Muscat, Matt Lawrence, Darren Ward, Robbie Ryan (Peter Sweeney 71), Paul Ifill, Dennis Wise, David Livermore, Tim Cahill, Neil Harris (Kevin Braniff 61), Danny Dichio. Subs not used: Andy Marshall, Mark McCammon, Andy Roberts.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche (Luke Chadwick 77), Mark McGregor (Alan Moore 85), David May, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant, Neil Wood, Robbie Blake (Paul Weller 62), Ian Moore. Subs not used: Paul Rachubka, Bradley Orr.
Referee: Howard Webb (Rotherham).